The Big Four: Spectrum and the Iron Man
by cjupsher
Summary: Superhero AU: Right and wrong. Good and bad. Such things aren't always so black and white, as a young superhero apprentice is about to discover when she befriends a being not of this world. It's very existence raises questions. Why is it here? Is it dangerous? And can she trust her own instincts when everything about it isn't as it seems and the world is in peril?
1. Chapter 1

**Unearthed**

Somewhere in Iceland, upon the ice cap of Langjokull, two individuals walked. Heading in a direction that was away from a large military plane that had touched down and flown them there. Both individuals weren't quite human. They were something more. One looked like a strange mix between a fish and an ape, with a long arms, hand like feet, scaly skin, and a fish like tail. The other looked like some kind of insect humanoid, specifically a cockroach. He had a large bobble like head topped with two antennae and was dressed in a lab coat, with plaid pants, and dress shoes.

The roach man held a small hand held device in his hands that displayed a satellite scan of the area, and allowed them to keep heading in the direction of their objective.

"Ice. Ice everywhere. Man I hate ice," the fishman said.

"After being stuck in it for as long as you were, I'd say your disdain in rather justified," the roach man said simply.

"Susan should be with us. But ever since she got her stupid boyfriend we're being forced to pick up the slack," the fish man complained. *****

"Oh stop complaining Link. We should be happy for Susan," the roach man said.

"Always glass half full Doc," Link said back grumpily.

"Alright alright, enough chit chat gentleman. Stay on the task at hand," came a voice over the the device in the Doctor Cockroach's hands.

"So what exactly are we checking out Monger?" Link asked aloud as he and his companion continued to walk straight ahead.

"We aren't sure exactly. Climate changes have allowed our satellites to detect something buried beneath the ice and snow. And recently, we've detected some kind of powersource coming off this thing. Whatever energy it's giving off...it's not from earth," Monger explained.

"So definitely alien then," Link said.

The Missing Link and Dr. Cockroach, both of these monsters were agents of a secret governmental division tasked with monitoring alien activity. They worked closely with the NSA, but for the most part all things alien were their in their jurisdiction.

Suddenly the device in the Doc's hands began to act strange. The feed began to distort and become filled with static. Then images flashed across the screen. Trees, water, a child, Then the scanner began to emit noises, voices, words, and perhaps even a name.

"Doc? Link? What's happening? We're getting some kind of interference."

"Yes General. We seem to be experiencing that too," the Doc said as he gave it a tap. It apparently did the trick as it went back to normal. "Seems it's passed," the Doctor said curiously. "And from what I'm seeing," he said as he came to a sudden stop. His partner did the same, looking at him and the screen curiously.

"We appear to be right on top of-"

Suddenly the ice beneath them began to crack and split apart. Doc yelped, dropping the scanner as he wobbled and wheeled his arms to try and stay upright. Link was faring slightly better when the ground beneath them began to upheave. Something suddenly punched through the ice. The Doc and Link yelped in alarm as they reeled away from what looked like a hand. The ground continued to tremble as something else punched through the ice. Link quickly grabbed the Doc and leapt clear as it split apart.

And from beneath the ice something huge began to rise up. Link and the Doc looked up in shock as something gigantic rose into the air, standing at nearly fifty feet tall and blocking out the sun with it's form. The Doc and Link shielded their eyes, blinded by the two bright lights shining down on them.

The ground beneath them began to tremble. The Doctor and Link reeled back as two powerful streams of fire erupted from the ground. It blinded the monsters who turned away from the heat and light.

Doc and Link stared after the thing as it took to the skies and flew off like a jet. They brushed snow and ice off themselves before Doc went to retrieve the scanner. Monger was speaking, demanding answers.

"Sorry General," Doc said as he picked it up.

"What in hell is going on gentleman? Suddenly we're picking up a fast moving object flying back towards the states!" Monger shouted.

"Sorry Monger. But we found whatever was in the ice," Link stated.

"Well, don't keep me waiting! What the hell was it?"

The Doc and Link exchanged a glance, trying to come up with the best answer.

"Well from what we could see it was like some kind of big...metal...guy-thing," Link said in uncertainty.

"Come again?"

"It was some kind of giant General," the Doctor tried to input helpfully. He looked up, seeing the jet stream left behind by the strange metal man they'd uncovered. "Some kind of... _iron giant._ "

* * *

 **next big four story**

 **anyone hyped yet?**

 ***see Superhero Drabbles chapter 59**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Hero's Apprentice**

A pillar of black smoke filled the air of Corona city as large multistory apartment slowly burned. The Corona citizens watched in horror, gathering around the burning building as the fires slowly ate at it. The building's residents ran out the front door while other climbed down the fire escapes as quickly as they could. Coughing and gasping for air, hearts racing, adrenaline flooding their systems. More people ran to join the crowd that was being held back by the recently arrived firetrucks. The fire fighters started to mobilize, getting ready to do their jobs, and hopefully save lives if they had to.

Suddenly a distant crash cut through the crowd's chatter and the sounds of city. The citizens of Corona knew it well. All eyes went to the sky, scanning the clouds, and the vast expanse of blue expectantly. It got closer and louder, the sound making their hearts leap with joy.

And someone finally let out a joyous shout while pointing their hand up, "Limelight!"

Immediately everyone saw the telltale streak of gold flying in the direction of the building at astonishing speed. But unlike countless times in the past it wasn't alone. Following a short distance behind it was a yellow streak. Both dropped lower and lower, flying just above the streets with the gold one leading the way.

"Everyone clear a path! Move!" one of the firefighters yelled.

Immediately the crowds split apart as the figures touched down on the streets, moving past the people in a blur and leaving a powerful gust of wind behind. They disappeared into the building, running right in through the front door. Everyone held their breaths as they stared at the front door, waiting anxiously and giving a silent prayer.

And then in a flash two figures rushed out the front. One was clad in purple and gold, with long blonde hair, and glowing golden eyes. She carried two men out, one on each shoulder before passing them off to the firemen. Following closely behind was a younger woman, a teen from what most could gather. She was thin and wearing a black, white, and yellow outfit with black stripes that matched her yellow and black striped scarf. In her arms was an elderly woman, she passed her off to the firemen.

The two women turned around, staring at the burning building.

"You take the first half. I'll take the upper levels," Limelight said.

"Ok," the younger girl said with a nod. And then they rushed back into the building in the blink of an eye. The people watched as one by one the two of them came out with more and more people who couldn't get out of the building as easily as others. They came out with children, the old, the sick, and sometimes the occasional pet. They did this for a good five minutes until one by one they checked every floor and room.

As they passed off the last of the residents they turned around, standing side by side and looking up at the burning building.

"Pop quiz Spectrum," Limelight said to her as she kept her eyes on the building. Spectrum turned her head to look at her. "How do we put out a fire without water?" she asked her.

Spectrum blinked at the question before looking down at the ground with pursed lips. It took her a few moments of contemplation to recall her superpower lessons. But she eventually remembered. Her head snapped up and she looked to her. "Vacuum vortex?"

"A+," Limelight told her with a smile. "Ready?" Spectrum nodded. "Just like we practiced."

In unison the two of them began to float off the ground. The people watched as they drifted upward to float around the middle of the building. They moved a bit closer before raising their arms up. Then they began to spin. They got faster and faster, gaining speed until they were like to yellow whirlwinds. Then they began to turn, bodies perpendicular to the building.

The speed of their rotation created a vacuum that began to suck the flames out of the building and toward them. Their constant spinning put out the flames, leaving behind the blackened remains of the building that was otherwise ok.

The people cheered as they began to slow down and drift toward the ground. Limelight stopped spinning and touched down on the ground. She inspected the building, satisfied that they'd successfully put out the fire. Behind her the people began to applaud. She glanced over her shoulder before turning around to smile at them. Then she glanced to the side to check on her sidekick.

She saw Spectrum wobbling to the side and struggling to stay upright. She also looked a little green. Limelight walked over to her as she fell to her knees.

"The world is spinning," Spectrum said dizzily.

"Yeah. You got to get used to that," she told her.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Spectrum said as she felt her stomach beginning to churn.

"Not in front of the citizens," Limelight told her. Spectrum swallowed deeply before nodding. She shakily rose to her feet, assisted by Limelight before they flew off and the left the firefighters to handle the rest.

They went to the park where Spectrum proceeded to wretch into some bushes. Limelight rubbed her back gently. "That's it. Let it out," she said soothingly. Eventually Spectrum emptied the contents of her stomach. She wiped her mouth with a gloved hand before standing up. "Better?"

Spectrum nodded in confirmation. With that they both floated off the ground and into the air. Spectrum followed behind Limelight as they flew above the city. Spectrum smiled to herself, excited about the days to come. It was a three day weekend, and her parents had allowed her to spend it with her mentor. She usually only did her superhero duties every other day or so and the weekends.

Spectrum, or Riley Andersen (which was her secret identity), was what the NSA was deeming as a superhero apprentice. Or in other words, a sidekick. She had not been born with her powers. Instead they'd been granted to her through experimentation, an ordeal she wasn't keen on reminiscing about, but couldn't help but be thankful for allowing her to work alongside her favorite superhero. After meeting the NSA had suggested to Limelight that it was in Riley's best interest to learn from a more experiences hero. And Limelight had agreed and officially taken her under her wing, teaching her all she knew about being a superhero.

Still, she couldn't help but find her superhero duties to be a bit...dull.

She pursed her lips before putting on enough speed to pull in front of Limelight. "Hey Limelight. When are we going to fight some bad guys?" she asked eagerly.

Limelight gave a laugh at her enthusiasm. "Well that's not really up to us sweetie," she said with a shrug.

"But isn't that we we're supposed to do. Fight bad guys, save the world, go on adventures and stuff?"

Limelight sighed. Riley's view of the superhero lifestyle was very glamorized. While she herself had fought villains, saved the world, and gone on a few adventures, they weren't exactly on a regular basis. "You've watched one too many cartoons sweetie," Limelight said as she began to drift passed her.

"Most of the time I only handle petty crimes. And many days it's just constant patrol without any action," she told her honestly.

Spectrum let out a groan. "But that's so boring," she complained. Limelight shrugged. "I hope something bad happens so-"

Immediately Limelight rounded on her protege. "Riley!" she said sharply in appallment. The teen froze up. Stomach dropping at the use of her real name as her mentor gave her a very stern and disappointed stare. "You should never _wish_ for something bad to happen. Ever," Limelight told her, hands on hips and voice firm. "When bad things happen people can get hurt. Or die. This isn't something we do for fun or to pass the time. We do this to try and stop the bad things from happening."

Spectrum looked down in shame. "Sorry," she muttered, disappointed in herself at even suggesting such a thing.

Limelight stared down at her protege and let out a breath to relax. "It's ok sweetie. But you shouldn't go inviting trouble. Often times, it finds you," she told her. "C'mon. Let's keep patrolling," Limelight said as she turned and began to fly away. Spectrum followed behind, head still down in guilt.

Limelight looked back, feeling slightly bad. Maybe she'd been a little too hard on her. "Pop quiz," she said aloud. At that the teen looked up. "What's a 10-71?" Limelight asked.

Spectrum pursed her lips in thought. "A shooting?" she said, a little unsure.

Limelight smiled. "A+," she said in praise. Spectrum finally smiled then. "How about a 10-54?"

"Possible dead body."

"Correct," Limelight said proudly. Limelight was quizzing her apprentice on common police codes. Codes she herself had become familiar with over the years to better assist the police department of Corona. These were one of the many things she was teaching her new apprentice. All in hopes of someday making her a great superhero when she one day went solo. Besides police codes she also taught her CPR, basic first aid, how important it was to form a strong trusting relationship with the local police department, a few common laws, and how to use her superpowers creatively for special situations.

Spectrum was learning them all at her own pace, always paying diligent attention to whatever she had to say. She always hung on the older superheroine's every word, something Limelight found both appreciating, and adorable.

After about half an hour of patrolling Limelight suggested they split up. She would take one part of the city and Spectrum would take a small piece. Spectrum nodded before flying off. She casually soared above the city, eyes downward at the streets and on the lookout for any crime. As she flew the citizens who noticed her raised their hands and waved. She smiled as she waved back in passing.

She eventually flew over Corona's city's park. Located at it's center it was a beautiful lush green plot of land with trees, a small pond, and jogging trails perfect for exercise and enjoying a lovely day. She stopped to hover above it, reminiscing about the short time she'd lived in the park before first meeting Limelight. She hummed in thought as she flew lower, just above the trees in search of the box she'd slept in for a few days.

She found it. Laying well hidden among the foliage. She pursed her lips before slowly drifting down to the ground so she could dispose of it. She landed before and reached a hand out to grab it, only for it to suddenly move. Spectrum stopped and took a large step back before softly saying, "Hello?"

The flaps on the box opened to reveal a homeless man. She made that assumption based on his dirty appearance, torn clothes, and the fact that he was living in an carboard box. She contemplated leaving him here, but then remembered that Corona had laws specifically against camping out in public places such as the park. So she felt it was her duty to get this man to leave.

She tried asking him nicely, to which the man blatantly refused. She then told him he had to leave or she would turn him over to the police. He still did not comply. Out of patience she wrapped him up with her scarf and lifted him off the ground, intent on taking him to the police station. As she turned to head off in the direction of the police station she nearly bumped into her mentor.

"Spectrum what are you doing?" she asked as she looked down at the bound homeless man dangling off the ground.

"He was camping in the park. I asked him to leave and he refused to comply, so I'm taking him to the police," Spectrum explained.

She'd been expecting her mentor's nod of approval. Instead, and much to her confusion, Limelight only sighed and palmed her head. "Spectrum, put the poor man down." Spectrum did as told, setting the man down. He reeled away from them as they lowered down to the ground.

Limelight walked up to him, offering him a kind smile. "Sorry about that sir. But you really aren't supposed to camp out in the park. How about a shelter for the night? I know some people who can make some room and get you a nice hot meal?" she offered. The man blinked at her before giving a hesitant nod.

Limelight smiled before she flew him off to a shelter. He thanked her profusely before stepping into the building and out of sight. Limelight turned to look down at her apprentice, "We need to talk sweetie."

"But I was just doing what the law said," Spectrum said in her own defense. The two of them were atop a building as Limelight chastised her apprentice.

"I know sweetie. And I'm not mad at you," she assured her. "Just you went a tad too far," she said. Spectrum was confused, and it shown on her face. Limelight decided to elaborate. "Alright Riley, here's a new lesson for you. Sometimes, you have to do what is right, over what the law says."

"But isn't following the law the right thing to do?"

"It is. Most of the time," Limelight said with a nod. "That man has nowhere else to go sweetie. No home. And hardly anything to his name. Does he really deserve jail just for trying to find a place to rest?"

"Well-" Well when she put it like that...

"Right and wrong. Good and bad. They're not always so black and white. Sometimes you have to do the moral thing over the lawful thing," Limelight reiterated.

"But how do I know when to do the right thing over the lawful thing?" Spectrum asked, confused.

"Well it's not always going to be clear," Limelight explained. "You just have to...trust your instincts," she said with a shrug.

Spectrum blinked before looking out over the city and trying to wrap her head around this new lesson. Most of Limelight's words of wisdom were pretty cut and dry. But this...this was something she was going to have to ponder over.

Suddenly Limelight's communicator started going off. She pulled it out before glancing at it. Her protege watched her as the heroine's eyes widened in shock. She immediately leapt up and began to hover off the building. Spectrum followed after, staring at her and awaiting an explanation.

"There's an emergency. We have a plane to catch," Limelight said.

"Ok," Spectrum said, she turned in the direction of the Corona airport, only for Limelight to grab her by the shoulder. She glanced back in confusion.

"Not what I meant sweetie," Limelight said. She looked out over the distance before pointing her back toward Spectrum. "Grab on," she said. Spectrum did as told, clinging to her back and wrapping her arms around her.

Then they were off, flying over and then away from the city at sonic speeds. Spectrum held on as tight as she could, face buried into Limelight's back before they suddenly stopped. She looked around as she let go of her mentor to find that they were over the ocean, with the city a couple kilometers back the way they'd come. Limelight was scanning the expanse of clouds and sky in search of something.

"What's going on Limelight?" Spectrum asked, starting to get concerned.

"There's a plane going down," she explained as she began to rise into the air. Spectrum followed after her. "We need to stop it or else it'll crash into the ocean, or worse, the city," she explained.

"Oh no," Spectrum said in worry.

"It's ok sweetie," Limelight said to calm her. "Catching a plane is relatively easy. All you have to do is help it glide in for a landing. Easy-"

Suddenly the plane burst from the cloud cover and right at them. Limelight and Spectrum both let out a shout in alarm before splitting apart and letting it fly between them. They stared in shock as the plane was headed for the ocean, locked in a rather steep dive and spinning uncontrollably. They looked to see the right wing and engine completely gone and a large chunk of the plane's underside gone.

"Holy sh-"

"Language!" Limelight interrupted sharply. "Stay back Spectrum," Limelight shouted as she prepared to dive after it.

"But I want to help," Spectrum said.

"This isn't something you're prepared for and that plane is far above the limit of your strength," Limelight said as she pointed at the still rapidly falling plane. "Stay put," she said one last time. And then she was diving after it. Spectrum watched her go as she fiddled with her hands anxiously. Her mentor's earlier words suddenly echoed in her mind. She hoped this wasn't some kind of cosmic karma, making something bad happened because she'd wished it.

As she watched something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned her head, only to see something else falling through the clouds. Spectrum blinked before glancing back and forth between her mentor and the plane and the thing she'd glimpsed. She thought it might be another plane, and she wasn't sure if she should help or not.

She clenched her fists anxiously before diving after the thing falling through the clouds. Whatever it was had a headstart on her. She tried to get a good look, but she kept being blinded by the moisture of the clouds. Whatever it was cleared the clouds first before hitting the water. Spectrum stopped, letting the pillar of water from the thing's collision dissipate before diving down to hover just over the surface in search of the plane. Maybe she could help, find a survivor, something.

Beneath the waves she could make out something big and dark. She narrowed her eyes, trying to determine if it was the plane or perhaps some passing whale.

Then suddenly two white orbs of light shone in the dark, almost like eyes. Spectrum gasped before shooting up into the air. The orbs dimmed as whatever it was sank further and further into the depths of the ocean. She stared at it the spot, and shuddered, wondering what the heck she'd seen.

Meanwhile, Limelight dived after the plane, getting closer and closer as she prepared to help. The first thing she needed to do was stop it from spinning. She began to fly in a circle, matching the plane's speed before grabbing the remaining wing. She slowed, slowly bringing the plane's spin to a stop. But it was still in a dive. She flew from the wing and to the window of the cockpit. She tapped on the glass, catching the attention of the pilot. She pointed upward, he nodded in understanding as she flew under the plane, placing herself near the nose before pushing upward with all her might. At the same time the pilot pulled back on the controls.

Limelight grunted, hands bending the sheets of metal as she pushed upward with her great strength. And slowly but surely the plane began to come out of the dive. A few hundred feet above the water Limelight managed to get the plane completely out of the dive and began carrying it toward the city. She glanced back to see her protege following in the distance and smiled.

She let out a breath in relief.

"Easy peasy," she said to herself.

Within an hour Limelight managed to successfully carry the plane back to Corona before helping it land safely at the airport. The people inside were a little shaken up. But all souls were accounted for. Limelight and Spectrum helped people off the plane as authorities arrived to assist. Once everyone was off the plane Limelight went to speak with the pilot.

As she did Spectrum was floating curiously around the plane to observe the damage. It definitely seemed as if the plane had hit something as there were huge and long scratch marks running along it's side. As she inspected some of the damage to to the underside something drew her attention.

She could make out something flashing and could hear some kind beeping. She followed the noise and light until she found something lodged into the frame of the airplane. She gripped it with her hands before pulling and ripping it out with a grunt.

She inspected the thing. Only to find it to be some kind of big screw. Really big. It fit snugly in her hand. It had a flashing blue light on it and was beeping, not to mention wiggling in her hands, almost as if it were trying to escape her grasp.

She immidiately flew over to Limelight, who was still speaking with the pilot.

"I'm not sure what he hit to be honest. It all happened so fast," he said, rubbing the back of his neck in confusion.

The heroine hummed in thought as her protege landed beside her. "Limelight," she said to get her attention. The heroine looked down at her. "I found this in the side of the plane," Spectrum said as she held the screw up. Limelight arched a brow and took it, but much to the confusion of the teen, it had ceased moving and beeping.

"It was moving and beeping," Spectrum told her as she stared at it and waited for it to do so again.

Limelight ignored the last comment before showing the screw to the pilot. The pilot took the screw and examined it. From what he could gather it didn't belong to his plane. Limelight took it back and surmised that it must have come from whatever had crashed into his plane. She decided to hang onto it and see if Night Fury couldn't figure out what kind of flying vessel it could have come from.

With that she and her protege took to the air, flying across the city and back to Limelight's home. Back inside her apartment Limelight removed her mask before setting the screw down on the kitchen table. She stared at it as it remained motionless.

"It was moving," Spectrum said again. She tapped it with her finger as if trying to entice it to do so again. But nothing happened.

"Well it's not moving now," Limelight said with a shrug. Limelight took out her communicator and held it above the screw. "Eve, analyze," she said. The communicator beeped before it took a scan of the screw. "Send to Night Fury for analysis," she said. It beeped once more before the scans were sent to her teammate in Berk.

If anyone could figure out where it came from, it was Hiccup.

"Alright," Limelight said as she turned to her apprentice. "Good work today Riley," she said with a nod. "We'll call it a day."

Riley nodded before taking off her mask. Limelight left for her room so she could change while Riley lowered herself down to stare at the now unmoving screw. She raised a hand up again and tapped it with her finger. It rocked back and forth, but eventually went still.

Riley hummed in thought.

Had she imagined that the entire time? But even if she had, what had hit the water? And what had been shining beneath the surface like two white eyes?

"Weird."

* * *

 **new chap.**

 **And let's everyone give Specrtum a round of applause for being the first Drabble character to appear in a Big Four story.**

 **I love this character so much!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Giant Killer Robot from Outer Space!**

The sun began to set a few hours after Riley and Rapunzel returned to her apartment. Rapunzel was in her room, getting ready for some kind of party while Riley went to hers. She lounged on her full size bed, flipping through channels in search of something interesting to watch. She'd changed from her superhero outfit and into a T-shirt and sweatpants so she could truly lounge around and relax.

Her room was one of Rapunzel's guest room that she'd turned into a room specifically for Riley. It had a bed, a dresser, and a wall mounted television, and a large closet. Riley loved it. Already she'd decorated the wall with hockey posters and star stickers to make it feel more like a home away from home.

After minutes of flipping channels she heard a knock. She perked up but remained in her room. She wasn't supposed to be seen. They didn't want anyone questioning why Rachel Punzel, famed supermodel, had an adolescent staying at her apartment. She turned down the volume on the TV and listened as Rapunzel answered the door and let whoever had arrived inside. Then she heard footsteps approaching her room.

She stared at the door before within a few moment it opened.

"Sup kid."

Riley beamed and leapt off the bed. "Jack!" she cried in glee. The brown haired hockey player smiled at her in greeting before raising his hand up. Riley gave him an enthusiastic high five as he fully stepped into the room. He was dressed in a sleek black tuxedo, already prepared to join Rapunzel for her party.

"Look what I got," Jack said as he brought his other hand around to reveal several pizza boxes. Riley's smile widened. "Let's you and me dig in while Rapunzel primps. God knows that woman can primp forever," Jack offered. Riley nodded eagerly. As Riley began to dig into the pizza with gusto Jack set up one of the few game consoles Rapunzel had bought for Riley to add to her room.

They put on a fighting game first, talking smack and battling their characters for at least an hour before switching to a hockey game. The smack talk only grew, their fingers mashing the controls as they fought to win.

"So how goes the superhero-ing,Riley?" Jack asked, eyes still on the game.

"Pretty good I guess," Riley said with a shrug, half of her attention also on the game. "We put out a fire today," she added.

"Nice," Jack said with a nod of approval. "Anything else?"

"Well..." Riley said as suddenly looked down in slight guilt. Jack paused the game and looked at her. "Rapunzel is trying to teach me something I don't fully understand. She told me that sometimes you have to do the right thing over the lawful thing," she said. She furrowed her brows, "I'm not sure I get it."

Jack hummed in thought. "Yeah. That can be a tough one," Jack said in understanding. He pursed his lips as he tried to come up with a way to explain it to her. "Have you learned about the Civil Rights movements in school yet?"

Riley looked to him, meeting his eyes before nodding. "Alright, well then you probably know that back in the old day, people of different races had to have separate schools, fountains, and all that stuff right?" Riley nodded. "Well that was wrong. But at the same time, it was the law. The Civil Rights movements started from people who felt they needed to do the right thing, over the lawful thing. Get it?"

Jack's explanation admittedly made the concept a bit easier to grasp. "But what if the right thing isn't always so easy to see," Riley asked.

Jack sighed. "Yeah. Sometimes it isn't," he said with a shrug. "There are going to be times when you question your decisions. In the end sometimes all you can do is go with your gut." Riley blinked as she processed what he'd said. As she was in the midst of contemplation Jack unpaused the game, and before Riley could get her wits about her Jack scored a point and won it.

"Yes!" Jack whooped victoriously as he threw his hands up.

"Hey! No fair Jack!" Riley cried indignantly. Jack only stuck his tongue out at her teasingly, prompting Riley to give him a shove.

At that moment Rapunzel opened the door and peeked her head inside, "Alright Jack, I'm ready," she said. Jack stood up while Riley looked at Rapunzel. Her eyes widened in awe. Rapunzel wore a long lavender dress that hugged her form. She had applied only a light layer of makeup that was the most part unnoticeable, accentuating her natural beauty and also enhanced by a bit of lipstick. Her hair had been brushed to a shine and she wore a golden necklace in the shape of a sun. She wore a pair of lavender high stilettos that matched her dress.

"Wow. You look really pretty," Riley said without thinking.

Rapunzel gave her a sunny smile. "Aww. Thanks sweetie." Jack straightened out his tux while Rapunzel brushed some hair and lint off it. They made their way to the door with Riley following behind.

"Alright sweetie, we're heading out," Rapunzel said as she and Jack were at the door.

"OK," Riley said with a nod.

"We should be back by midnight. Be good. Don't stay up too late. There's plenty of food in the fridge if you get hungry."

"Ok."

Jack and Rapunzel linked arms and prepared to step out. "And no leaving the apartment Riley."

"Got it."

"Oh, and one more thing," Jack said as he glanced back at her. Riley cocked her head to the side. "No parties," he said jokingly. Riley giggled at the joke before they all gave one last farewell. Riley locked the door behind them before turning around. She smiled. She had the whole apartment to herself.

Not even her parents would let her stay home by herself. Riley immediately jumped over the living room couch so she could watch the big TV. She turned it on and began browsing the movie sections in search of something scary to watch. Riley had a particular fondness for horrible, cheesy, and downright ridiculously low budget horror movies. Why? She had no idea. She just did.

She scrolled through the selection before one particular title caught her attention.

It was uncreatively named: _Giant Killer Robots from Outer Space_. It didn't take Riley too much thought on her part to guess what the movie was about. After a few moments of deliberation she shrugged before selecting it. As it began to start she went to the kitchen and made herself some popcorn before turning off all the light in the apartment.

She had to set the atmosphere.

* * *

Riley's eyes were wide as she clutched a pillow tightly to her chest as she continued to watch the movie. It was scarier than she'd anticipated despite the low budget and poor effects. And no matter how much she may have wanted to she could not for the life of her look away.

She watched as people got disintegrated, stepped on, crushed like grapes, and killed in various other excruciatingly painful, cringe worthy ways.

The monster of the story was a unstoppable killer robot sent to destroy the fictional earth. It had a myriad of powerful weapons that allowed it to decimate the army sent to stop it. It destroyed all in it's path, sending people running and cowering out of it's way. Any unlucky enough to stumble or fall ended up as ash or an unrecognizable mess on the ground.

The robot was humanoid, walking on two legs and possessing two arms and a pair of soulless red eyes that glowed menacingly before blasting two red beams of death.

Riley's fists clenched the pillow tightly as the movie continued. Her popcorn lay halfway eaten and forgotten at her side as she remained fully engrossed in the movie. As she continued to watch she failed to notice the screw on the table suddenly beginning to flash. A blue light flashed faintly in the dark, unnoticed by the teen before it began to move. It wiggled until it rolled onto it's side and then across the length of the table. It eventually reached the edge before falling off and to the floor.

Riley suddenly jumped as she heard something hit the floor behind her. She turned on the lights before turning off the TV so she could listen. And then she heard it. The faint beeping that made her walk into the kitchen. She turned her head to and fro as she tried to pinpoint its source. When she couldn't see it she finally looked to the table. Brow arched she knelt down to peek under it.

Rolling beneath the table was the screw. Her eyes widened as she watched it roll beneath the table, trapped between the legs of the table and chair as it searched for a clear path. Riley crawled under the table and toward it, hand outstretched to grab it only for it to finally free itself and roll out from under the table and away from her.

"Hey!" Riley said in annoyance as she crawled after it. She leapt up and advanced on it before snatching it up. It wiggled and turned in her hand insistently, as if trying to escape. Riley stared at it in wonder. She wasn't sure what to do until she had an idea.

She went to her room and found her communicator. She held it up to the screw in her hand and said, "Eve. Analysis," she said, hoping she would get some kind of result. Immediately her communicator came to life. On the screen was the screw, along with text displaying various information that Riley didn't understand.

"Unidentified object is reacting to an unknown signal," came Eve's voice from the communicator.

Riley blinked. So it was reacting to some kind of signal? She hummed in thought. "Eve. Can you track that signal?" she asked curiously.

"Tracking," said Eve. Suddenly the screen changed to display a map of the city. Riley turned her communicator so it lay parallel to the floor. A three dimensional holographic map of the city was projected into the air. The map turned and a large red circle was shown.

"That's the docks," Riley said curiously. She looked at the point on the map, then the screw, and then out the window of the apartment. A crazy idea began to form. She checked the time, finding it was only 9:45. She had about two hours before Jack and Rapunzel would get back. The docks weren't that far away, not if you could fly.

Riley smiled before rushing to her room. She quickly got dressed, donning her Spectrum outfit before going to the balcony. She held the screw firmly in hand while pocketing her communicator.

She would just go out and see what the screw was being drawn to. Maybe it was dangerous. And as a superhero she did have a duty to protect the people from whatever might be a threat.

She floated off the balcony and went straight up, getting high and higher until she was at the height of skyscrapers. Then with a shout she took off, heading toward the docks.

* * *

It only took her about 20 minutes to get to her destination. She found the docks empty and dimly lit. Shipping crates were stacked as high as buildings and loading cranes towered over everything. A few small container ships were moored to the docks, carrying the metal crates that would likely be offloaded the following day.

Riley held her communicator in hand, following the GPS map displayed in the screen of it intently. Her heart thrummed in excitement. Anxious to discover what mystery she'd stumbled upon. This was far more exciting than anything she'd done since her debut. She landed and began to walk, head down and screw still in hand. But as she drew closer to whatever the signal was coming from it's struggling seemed to increase.

Riley kept going as she looked down at the screw. She wasn't paying attention until, "Woah!" she cried as she stepped off the edge of the dock. She used her telekinesis to catch herself and place herself back on the dock, but in her surprise she'd loosened her grip on the screw, allowing it to finally free itself and fall into the water with a soft * _Plop!*_

Riley looked down at the ripples made by the screw disappearing beneath the water. "Well that sucks," she muttered to herself. Now what? She looked to her communicator, finding that whatever she'd been looking for was apparently straight ahead. She looked up and out over the water, finding a slight mist obscured her view.

She narrowed her eyes as she made out...something dark in the mist. And then suddenly to bright lights blinded her. She shielded her eyes against the brightness as something began to draw closer to the docks. Riley backed away, assuming it was some kind of ship coming in and that the light were to help navigate through the mist.

But as she managed to get a glimpse at whatever was approaching she saw it was no ship. Riley's eyes widened as she backed up, neck craning back as something huge approached. It was too dark to get a full glimpse of it. But the outline and silhouette of what she saw was enough to make her stomach drop like it were filled with lead.

A giant being that walked on two legs, had two arms, and a head. With a body made entirely of metal. And two white orbs as eyes.

Both of which were directed down and at her.

Riley turned on her heel, body stiff and arms pressed against her sides. She felt her blood run cold as her heart beat madly in her chest. Was this what she'd been tracking? Was this what the screw had been so insistently trying to get back to?

Riley swallowed a lump in her throat as she turned her head back to glance over her shoulder. She confirmed to herself that she wasn't hallucinating before quickly turning her head to the front. She attempted to slowly step forward and away from the thing, only to find herself unable to move, paralyzed with fear.

She suddenly heard the disturbance of the water behind her, followed by the sound of a heavy metal thump on the floor that she felt travel into her body and through her very bones. Her hair and eyes became a lavender and purple before she vanished.

She reappeared and opened her mouth to shout, only to stop herself. She clapped her hands over her mouth and let out a muffled scream of pure terror. This couldn't be happening! This couldn't be happening! Why did she have to go out? Why couldn't she have just stayed home like Rapunzel-

She flinched as she remembered her super powered, nearly invulnerable, sometimes overprotective but she'd sure as hell take it now, mentor. With a shaky hand she reached down to her pocket and pulled out her communicator. She was about to call her mentor up, uncaring of the consequences of her disobedience when she heard heavy metal footsteps approaching. She stiffened up, pressing herself against a large shipping crate and wishing one of her powers had been invisibility.

Suddenly a light began to shine onto the surface of the shipping crate before her. Riley sucked in a breath and held it as the light went back and forth. She silently prayed to not be found. And then to her relief the light disappeared and the footsteps seemed to be getting further and further away.

"Whew!" Riley said softly as she let out a breath. Suddenly the footsteps stopped. The area grew grimly quiet before suddenly the shipping crate Riley had been hiding behind was hoisted into the air. Riley spun around and looked up to find a giant metal being looking down at her, metal crate in hand like it weighed nothing.

Riley blinked before doing the first thing that came to mind.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed out in terror. The giant took a step toward her and Riley sped off in the opposite direction, leaving nothing but a yellow streak.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod! Giant Killer Robot from Outer Space!" she cried in panic, mind running wild at the similarities between the two automatons. The thing pursued her, metallic feet making the area rumble with every step. Riley flew in a crazed panic. She did **not** want to be disintegrated! She flew left and right, around and over shipping crates while occasionally glancing back at the giant metal monstrosity pursuing her.

She was so focused on fleeing that she didn't realize she was headed straight for a shipping crate until she barreled into ended up going right through it, and coming out the other end covered in fruit. But the worst part was that she'd dropped her communicator somewhere inside. She was about to rush back in and search for it, only to see the giant continuing to come after her.

Her eyes widened as she flew away from it. Once again her panic won out over sense. As she glanced back at the giant she crashed into a giant stack of crates. She didn't end up going through it this time. But her impact shook and unbalanced them. Riley looked up as they began to fall over, thousands of pounds of metal about to crash down on her head.

She was about to teleport away when something suddenly enclosed around her and pulled her away. She heard the crates crash to the ground, but was concealed in darkness. She felt around, only to find herself surrounded by metal. And then whatever had entrapped her suddenly pulled away. She looked around, eyes wide in disbelief as she found herself sitting in the metal palm of the giant.

She looked up, meeting it's two white eyes as it stared at her. She swallowed, too afraid to do anything when the giant suddenly lowered itself, extending its arm as it did before tilting it's hand to the side and letting her slide harmlessly onto the surface of another shipping container.

Riley blinked, looking up as the giant took a step back. Then another. And another before sitting down. Riley took her eyes off it for only a moment, finding the massive pile of the collapsed containers a few yards behind her.

She could hardly believe what had just happened. But there was no other explanation. None that made sense at least. She looked back to the giant, minding coming to the undeniable truth.

It had saved her.

Well...she probably wouldn't have died anyway. Her telekinetic powers offered her a substantial degree of durability and protection.

But regardless, it had snatched her out of harm's way before depositing her safely onto to the container. What's more it was almost as if it could tell she was afraid, as it kept it's distance. Just watching her, blinking with its head cocked to the side.

Riley stared at it, unsure what to do before uttering the first thing that came out of her mouth. "Thank you," she said, not sure if she was being loud enough to hear. It blinked in response.

Riley swallowed, gathering her nerves as she prepared to say something else. "Hi," she said, giving a small nervous wave.

The giant blinked again before opening it's mouth. "H-" it began, voice deep and strained. Raspy and carrying an almost metallic undertone. It raised a hand up and mimicked the motion of her hand.

" **Hi.** "

* * *

 **new chap.**

 **Oh Riley. Still a rookie.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Making Friends**

Jack and Rapunzel were attending a men's fashion gala in downtown Corona. They had their arms linked as they caroused with the local celebrities. Jack wasn't familiar with most of them, but being a citizen of Corona and a supermodel Rapunzel took the time to introduce Jack to her acquaintances. For the most part the couple were ignored, a professional athlete and a supermodel being a couple nothing out of the ordinary.

But as they were walking to their table Rapunzel phone went off. She pulled it out, only to see Hiccup calling her. She answered it and put it up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Rapunzel. I want you to bring me that screw," came Hiccup's firm demand.

"Hello Hiccup. Wonderful to hear from you," Rapunzel said blankly.

"...Sorry. How are you Rapunzel?" Hiccup said bashfully.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking," she answered before she and Jack snuck away to the corner of the room. "So what did you learn about the screw?"

"Not much. It's not like the design of any aircraft I'm familiar with. What's more, it seems to be far more complex than just an ordinary screw," he explained.

"How do you mean?"

"I can't really explain it all that well over the phone. Can you just bring to me?"

"Well Jack and I are at a party right now. It's going to last about an hour or two longer. Can it wait till then?"

There was a pause from Hiccup's end before she heard him sigh in acceptance. "Yeah. That'll be fine."

"Ok see you then. Bye." With that she hung up.

"What's this about a screw?" Jack asked curiously. Rapunzel gave him a brief recount of the plane she'd rescued and the strange screw she'd assumed came from whatever had crashed into it. "This thing must be more than what it seems. Specially if Hiccup wants to see it so badly."

"Yeah...thing is," Rapunzel said as she recounted what Riley had tried to tell her.

"Yeah?" Jack questioned with an arched brow.

"Riley said...that it was moving on it's own."

* * *

A few minutes had passed since Riley and the giant robot had begun their silent staring contest. The teen had remained where it'd set her down. Staring at it warily as it stared right back at her.

It could talk. Riley was trying to process that discovery as her mind kept pulling up scenes from the movie she'd watched just hours ago. One which featured a giant death machine that looked strikingly similar in appearance to this robot before her. But those robots never spoke. Simply remained silent as they shot laser beams that turned people to dust.

So far it'd yet to vaporize her. She really hoped that wouldn't change any time soon.

Riley was trying to come up with her next move when the giant suddenly raised an arm. She stiffened up as it reached out to the side, lifting up a shipping crate with one hand before looking it over. Riley cocked her head to the side curiously before standing up. She watched as the giant turned the crate over in it's hand before giving the container a little shake.

Riley floated off the ground before slowly making her way closer to it. What was causing her to do so was beyond her. But she felt as if the giant didn't want to harm her. Not to mention it had saved her from being crushed under a few thousand pounds of shipping containers.

Riley stopped to hover on the spot as the giant continued it's examination of the container. She glanced down at it, wondering what it found so interesting about the ordinary orange container when it raised its other hand up. It placed both hands on either end of the container and blinked. Riley continued to stare when suddenly the giant began to crush the container between it's palms.

Riley winced as the metal gave a screech of protest as the metal warped out of shape until the thing was flat. Then the giant raised it up to it's mouth, opened its jaws, and proceeded to bite down onto the flattened container. Riley's eyes widened as she watched it gobble the thing down like a burger. When it finished it it reached out and grabbed another one, ignoring Riley's presence as it began eat away.

Riley watched in fascination as it devoured several crates before she finally snapped from her stupor. "Hey stop!" she shouted. The giant ignored her as it picked up another crate. The doors to the container came open and an expensive looking red car fell out and toward the ground. Riley gasped as she dived after it.

She flew under it and raised her hands up, catching it in mid air before lowering it safely down to the ground. She set it down and let out a breath of relief. Glad to see it was undamaged until a giant metal hand plucked it off the ground. Riley's eyes widened as she watched the giant proceed to shove the car into it's gaping mouth.

Riley began to grow worried as she knew she had to stop the giant. These containers and whatever was inside of them belonged to someone. She couldn't just sit there and let the robot eat them. She flew up to it's face before shouting, "Stop!"

The giant paused, mouth open, and flattened shipping crate partway in it's mouth as it looked at her. "You can't eat this stuff!"

The giant lowered it's next morsel and cocked it's head to the side and blinked, as if questioning why it couldn't. "Put that down!" Riley shouted as she pointed to the container. The giant remained motionless for a beat before it simply dropped the container to the floor.

"Huh? That was surprisingly easy," Riley commented to herself. With one problem out of the way a newer, much more pressing matter was coming to fruition in Riley's mind. What the heck was she supposed to do with this thing? She looked down to the ground and placed a finger on her chin in thought. While she was contemplating the giant, still not sated, looked around for something else to eat.

It's eyes landed on the metal supports of the loading cranes. The giant made its way to it's feet before walking over to one. It reached it's hands out to rip the metal support out so it could eat only to be stopped when Riley suddenly appeared in a purple flash right in front of it's face.

"No! You can't eat this either!" Riley shouted. The giant's eyes went downcast, mimicking a disappointed expression. Riley couldn't help but be empathetic to it. It obviously fed on metal...for whatever reason. And being desperately hungry was definitely something she could relate to.

"I'm sorry. But you can't eat any of this stuff," she said in apology as she gestured to the area around them. Riley hummed and looked into the distance in thought. What exactly could it safely eat?

Suddenly the sounds of sirens in the distance made her whip around. Dread began to fill the pit of her stomach. The docks were a mess. Plus there was a giant robot here. That was sure to make some people panic.

"We need to go!" she shouted to the giant. It's eyes widened in surprise and confusion as it stared at her. "The police are coming," Riley said as she pointed in the direction of the sounds of the sirens. "If the police see you, they're going to go crazy. You know, wig out?"

The giant blinked before raising it's hand up to the sides of it's head. It spread its fingers and wiggled them about while emitting a jumble of sounds.

"Yeah...exactly like that," Riley said with a nod. The giant seemed to understand the situation as it looked around frantically for a route to leave. "This way," Riley called as she flew past its head and toward the water. It turned to look at her, head cocked as she motioned with her hand.

It took a step toward her. Then another and another before it stepped into the water. "She flew up to it's face. I know a place we can go. Follow me."

* * *

Rapunzel and Jack arrived back at her apartment just a little after midnight. Rapunzel immediately went to her kitchen to grab the screw. Only to stop and stare in surprise at the blank table top. "It's gone," Rapunzel said aloud.

"The screw?" Jack asked. Rapunzel nodded as she looked around, checking the countertops and beneath the table.

She pursed her lips before guessing that Riley might have taken it. She walked to her room before stopping at her door. She gently tapped her knuckles against it a few times. "Riley sweetie, are you still awake?" she asked gently. She paused to listen and heard no sounds coming from within. She opened the door as quietly as she could, hoping not to disturb the sleeping teen.

The light from the rest of the apartment filtered into the room. Rapunzel glanced to the bed, and what she thought she was seeing made her turn the lights on instantly. Then her eyes widened in horror was confirmed.

The bed was empty.

Rapunzel rushed to the bed and yanked the blankets off. She then turned and ran out of the room and to her own. She found that empty as well. She checked the entire apartment as Jack watched in confusion.

"She's gone!" Rapunzel cried hysterically.

"What do you mean gone?" Jack asked incredulously.

"As in-SHE. IS. NOT. HERE Jack!" Rapunzel shouted at him, her concern for the teen making her irritated at his dumb question. She went back to Riley's room and checked the closet. She saw the Riley's Spectrum outfit was gone. She relaxed only slightly before she narrowed her eyes.

"I don't believe this," Rapunzel said in frustration. "She went out as Spectrum."

"Oh. Well that's not so bad. She probably has her communicator on her. We can just track her," Jack said in relief.

"Not the point Jack," Rapunzel said sharply with a scowl. "I told her to stay put. I'm her mentor, anything she does as Spectrum reflects on me. And the rest of the Big Four. Who knows what she's doing out there, all by herself and without supervision at this time of night?"

* * *

Across the city Riley and the giant looked down upon a smorgasbord of things for the giant to devour. It was a scrapyard. Full of metal and junk that held no real value to anyone and thus safe for consumption. The giant looked around, eyes wide, hands raised, and finger curling and uncurling in anticipation.

"Go ahead then," Riley said at his side as she gestured to all the scrap. The giant apparently didn't need to be told twice. It stepped over the barbed wire fence before ravenously grabbing handfuls of metal. Car parts, motorcycle parts, old appliances, all things within reach began to quickly disappear down the giant's gullet.

Riley landed on an old school bus and watched, wondering about what she'd stumbled upon.

The giant's pace began to slow. It gulped down one last car before it began to glance around. It's head began to dart back and forth as it seemed to grow panicked as it tried to pinpoint whatever it was looking for. Then it it's eyes landed on Riley, and just like that it seemed to settle down. Riley stared as the giant began to make it's way over. It stood at Riley's side, glancing down at her before plopping down next to her. Riley stared at it as it took a seat beside her.

It was a strange thing. But no dangerous. That much was obvious. It was only coincidence that it looked like the killer robots from the movie she'd seen. Still, she couldn't help but wonder about it's origins. Could it be from outer space? Could it be an alien? Were aliens real? Had her mentor ever mentioned aliens? Riley hummed in thought before finally taking her eyes off the giant to look out over the scrapyard.

After leaving the docks as quietly as they could Riley had led the giant to this particular scrapyard as it was near the water, and pretty isolated. She knew about this place from Rapunzel, who brought her here.

"Limelight said she used to come here when she was my age," Riley said aloud, smiling at the memory of learning about her mentor's past. The giant looked at her as she began to talk. "She said she used to come here to train. Work out where no one could see her."

She looked to the giant and offered it a small smile. "Oh yeah. Limelight is my mentor. My name is Spectrum," she explained as she pointed at herself.

The giant cocked its head to the side. "Spec-trum?" is said, breaking the word up and speaking slowly.

"Yeah, exactly," she said with a nod. Riley smiled as she leapt up. She floated off the ground and placed her hands on her hips, mimicking her mentor's posture. "I'm a superhero," she said proudly. The giant blinked at her. "Well...technically I'm a superhero _apprentice_ ," Riley corrected. "But one day I'll be a full fledged one."

The giant blinked again before raising a giant hand up and pointing at her. "Superman?" it said in question.

"Exactly," she said with a nod. She cocked her head. "So you're the thing that hit the plane today, right?" she asked.

"Plane?" it asked.

"Yeah. You know, a plane. Big thing. Flies in the sky. Made of metal," she explained. She spread her arms about and flew a few small circles as an example. The giant blinked before raising a hand up to rub the side of it's head. That's when Riley noticed something she hadn't before. She flew around to the side of the giant to get a look at the side of it's head.

There was a few white scratches on it that she reasoned probably came from the collision with the plane. Along with that there was a small dent in the side of his head. "Looks like you hit it pretty hard," Riley commented. "I guess that screw was from you too," she realized. "You must be able to put yourself back together or something. That's pretty cool," she said, impressed.

"Where are you from?" she asked as she flew around to the front of it. The giant only stared at her in silence. "Who made you?" she asked. She figured it had to have been created by someone. She wondered if anyone could possibly create something like it. Well...maybe Night Fury could. He had made Eve after all and Limelight told her he was like a super genius.

The giant gave no answer to either of her questions. In the end it looked away and reached an arm out to the side, grabbing a handful of metal and shoving it into it's mouth. Riley let out a breath as it ignored her questions. She looked to the sky, taking note of the full moon. She wondered what time it was.

She reached down to search her pockets, only to freeze up.

"My communicator!"

* * *

Jack, Rapunzel, and a lot of police and dock workers were at the docks. And boy was it a mess. Shipping containers were everywhere. Some were crushed as if something enormous had stepped on them. And one was flattened like a pancake. From what the police were telling her, there were calls of some unknown disturbance that emanated from here. Rapunzel looked around in shock while severely hoping Riley hadn't been the cause of this.

"Found it," came Jack's voice from above. Rapunzel looked up to see Jack descending in his Frost disguise. He held Riley's communicator in hand. "It was in a shipping container filled with fruit," he commented as he wiped juice and pulp off of it.

"And no sign of Riley," Rapunzel said, growing more worried by the second. "What if she was attacked by something. What if this is the result of a fight?" she said as he gestured to the destruction around them.

"Hey. Don't freak out," Jack said as he grabbed her shoulders and rubbed them. "There could be a good explanation for all of this," Jack pointed out, though none came to mind at the moment. "For now, let's search the city. Do you have any idea where Riley would go? Any places you've taken her too?"

Rapunzel mulled it over before one came to mind. "I have an idea. C'mon," she said.

* * *

"Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" Riley repeated over and over as she flew back and forth rapidly. The giant watched her, nibbling on some scrap as she flew back and forth in the air frantically. Riley slapped her forehead. She lost her communicator and had no idea was time it was. For all she knew Rapunzel and Jack were back at the apartment and had realized she was gone.

"It must be back at the docks," Riley said with groan as she ran a hand over her face. "I have to back and get it," she said with a nod. She turned to the giant. "I'll be right back. You stay here," she told it. She flew past it and was about to shoot off toward the docks, only to hear the sound metallic footsteps behind her. She stopped and glanced back to see the giant standing up, eyes fixed on her and waiting.

Riley experimentally drifted backwards. The giant followed suite. "Ugh," Riley said as she slapped her forehead in annoyance. She couldn't have it following her. Not with the police around. She flew up to it's face. "Look. I have to go find my communicator. You can't come with me," she told it. She began to drift backwards again, only for the giant to take a step forward to follow.

"No!" Riley shouted in annoyance. "You stay," she said as she pointed at the giant and then down. "I go," she said as she placed a hand on her chest and then pointed her thumbs back. "No following," she said as she waggled a finger back and forth.

"If I don't find my communicator Limelight is going to _kill_ me," she added, hoping it would understand.

As Riley spoke something resonated within the giant. Her words. They triggered a series of images, sounds, a place that looked familiar but couldn't quite remember. But at her last statement the giant suddenly fell to it's knee. It placed it's hand on either side of it's head and made a sound of discomfort and pain.

Riley's eyes widened at the giant's sudden reaction. She drifted down in concern. "Hey! What's wrong! Are you ok?!" Riley asked in concern as the giant writhed.

The giant was being bombarded with things it couldn't quite understand. The face of a child who wasn't Riley. A place near the ocean that wasn't this place. Then explosions and fire. Screams. An animal and an object it hated.

Riley could only watch helplessly as the giant seemed to be in pain. She didn't know what to do and only stared until a loud crash followed by a cold breeze swirled around the area. Riley whirled around only to see a golden light approach from the distance.

"Uh oh," she muttered in dread.

In a few mere moments her mentor appeared and Jack was with her.

"Limelight!" Riley shouted as she floated over to her quickly. Her mentor's eyes were narrowed and her hands on her hips. Riley swallowed. "Ok. So I know I'm probably in trouble-"

"Oh you're **definitely** in trouble," Limelight assured her. "I told you to stay at the apartment," she reminded her sternly. She then glanced up and over her apprentice's head. "And what is **THAT**!" Limelight demanded.

As Riley began to try and explain the giant looked up. It's vision had gone red as it's attention became fixed on Limelight. Voices from a time it couldn't remember and Riley's words began to echo in it's head. ' _If I don't find my communicator Limelight is going to_ _ **kill**_ _me... it's bad to kill...gun...guns...kill...'_

"But it's not dangerous. It actually saved me and-" as Riley was in the midst of explaining she and the two heroes heard the giant rise. Riley's eyes widened and she gasped. The giant was standing at full height, and it's normally white curious looking eyes were now a menacing red and focused solely onto Limelight.

Limelight could sense the hostility coming from the giant. She quickly grabbed Riley and shoved her behind her, ignoring the girl's protests. Jack gripped his stand and hovered at Limelight's side in preparation, having sense what she had.

"Guns kill..." the giant said as it took a step forward. "Bad to kill," it said.

The giant was overwhelmed by an urge to protect. To protect Riley. And from what it could fathom Limelight was what she needed to be protected from. The giant didn't know why it felt the need to do so. But Riley's smile. Her kindness. Her words. They sparked something within that it had lost, something it felt it needed to remember. It was incomplete. Missing something.

There was somewhere it needed to go. Someone it needed to see again. Someone it wanted to see again.

It had to remember and it needed Riley.

"Limelight... _ **gun**_."

* * *

 **new chap.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Big Friendly Giant from Outerspace**

Limelight and Frost hovered side by side as they faced down the giant metal automatan glaring at them with menacing red eyes. They'd come to ensure that Limelight's sidekick was safe, and now it seemed as though they were in for a battle with a metal monstrosity of unknown origins. They stared at the giant as it advanced, footsteps heavy and rattling the area, crushing anything under heel.

Limelight gathered energy into her hands, light radiating from her clenched fists while the winds swirled and surged as Frost prepared to assist her. But before either side could strike a purple flash appeared before the giant, and when it passed Spectrum was floating right before it's face.

"Hey! Stop!" she shouted at the giant, confused by it's sudden threatening behavior. The giant did stop, red eyes drifting down to her. It scanned her before locking on, only for the giant to finally come to its senses.

"No," it said as it placed a hand over it's eyes. It took a step back, shaking it's head and muttering to itself over and over.

Spectrum let out a breath in relief, glad to see the giant seemed to have gone back to it's previous docile state. "There you go big guy," she said to it. "I'm fine."

The giant took a hand from it's face, gaze flicking back and forth between her and Limelight. "Limelight...no...kill?" it asked.

"Of course not!" Spectrum said in apallment. "She'd never hurt me. It was just an expression," she explained. "See, watch," she told it. She vanished in a purple flash of light before reappearing at Limelight's side. She threw her arms around her waist and hugged her, hoping to show that Limelight was no threat and had no intention of harming her.

Limelight stiffened up awkwardly at the sudden embrace. But she didn't push the teen away and waited until she was released. Together she, Frost, and Spectrum drifted over to the giant as it look at the three of them in turn.

"So," Spectrum chimed in. "This is my new friend...kinda," she said sheepishly.

"Strange friend," Limelight commented as she looked the giant up and down. She was still wary of it, but tried to remain calm and relaxed and not start a confrontation. If it would stay calm. So would she.

"Alright, now that that's all settled..." Frost said. Everyone looked to him. "What the heck are we going to do with a 50 foot robot!" he cried as he gestured to it.

All three heroes looked to the giant, it blinked at them in response.

"Well," Limelight said as she pursed her lips in thought. "Fury did say he wanted to get a look at the screw. And the screw is part of the giant..." she said thoughtfully.

"You want to take this thing to the base?" Frost asked in disbelief.

"It's far more isolated than in the city," Limelight pointed out.

"True," Frost conceded with a nod. "How we going to get it there?"

"I suppose I could carry it," Limelight said.

"It could probably just fly after us."

Both heroes looked to the apprentice in question. "It hit the plane earlier today. So obviously that means it can fly," she reasoned with a shrug. She looked to the giant. "Hey big guy, can you fly?" she asked it.

"Fly?" it said questioningly.

"Yeah. Like us," she said as she gestured to herself and the two superheros. She rose a little higher into the air as an example.

The giant gave a hum before looking down at it's feet. Something stirred in the depths of its memory before something in it turned on like a switch. The ground beneath it's feet began to rumble before two streams of fire began to lift it off the ground.

"You **can** fly!" Spectrum said in delight as she gave a cheer.

"Alright. Let's take it to the base then," Limelight said. They motioned for the giant to follow them. And follow it did as they began to fly over the city and in the direction of Berk.

Frost began to call his friend and teammate, wanting him to know what they were about to bring to his front door.

* * *

"What the heck did you bring to my house!" Night Fury cried from within his armor as he looked up at the gigantic metal man standing in the hangar of his underground base.

"Yeah...it's a long story," Limelight said as she rubbed the back of her head. "But you said you wanted to see the screw."

Night Fury kept his gaze upward, marveling at the robot standing before him. Never had he seen a robot so big. And it had look in it's eyes as it turned it's head to and fro. Night Fury gestured his teammates over so he could speak with them quietly. They stepped forward.

"Somebody please start explaining," he demanded. Limelight sighed before placing a hand behind her apprentice's back and shoving her forward to face her team leader.

"Go ahead Spectrum. Tell Night Fury what you told Jack and I," she told her apprentice.

Spectrum nodded before recounting her encounter and meeting with the giant. As she was in the midst of her story there was suddenly a metallic screech. Everyone look to the giant, only to find it currently sinking it's teeth into the wing of the Timberjack.

"NO!" Night Fury shouted as he pushed past his teammates. "STOP THAT!" he shouted. The giant released the wing before straightening up, head down in and eyes lowered in disappointment.

"Oh, and he eats metal," Spectrum added sheepishly.

Night Fury grunted before looking back at the teen in annoyance. "Would have been nice to mention earlier."

"Sorry," Spectrum muttered.

Night Fury sighed and rubbed the back of his helmeted head. "Sun's coming up. Why don't you guys get some sleep. I'll keep an eye on our friend here," Fury said as he motioned to the giant currently sitting in the hangar and watching them all in silence.

Rapunzel brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn. "Sounds good. I'm exhausted," she said. She, Jack, and Riley all began to leave the hangar.

The giant's eyes widened as Riley began to leave the room, it made to stand, stretching an arm out and saying, "Spec-trum."

Riley turned to look at the giant, seeing something akin to worry in it's eyes. She turned to face it before floating off the ground and up to it's face. "It's ok giant. I'll just be upstairs," she assured it. "Night Fury is a friend. We like Night Fury," she said as he gestured down to the armored hero.

The giant blinked before glancing down at Night Fury. It seemed to relax, sitting back down. "Be back soon. Ok?" It gave a nod in understanding as Riley lowered herself to the ground. She held it's gaze and smiled reassuringly before turning and making her way over to Rapunzel. She followed her mentor out of the hangar and deeper into the base to get some much needed rest.

The giant stared after her until she disappeared from view.

Night Fury stared at the giant before calling for Eve. Within a few moments the white egg shaped robot drifted into the room, eyes widening as she saw the giant. The giant took note of her as well, staring curiously at the smaller robot as she hovered to Fury's side.

"Eve, give me a preliminary scan of our friend here. See what you can tell me," he ordered. Eve nodded before flying over to the giant. She circled it's head. The giant watched her all the while. Eve looked the giant up and down before activating her scanners. The blue light over her scanners travelled over the giant's surface. She circled it before lowering herself to the ground and drifting back over to Night Fury.

"Alright Eve, send those scans to the main computer. And keep an eye on our friend. Make sure he doesn't eat the vehicles or any of the maintenance bots. See if Wall-e can find some scrap metal," he ordered. Eve nodded as Night Fury left the hangar, leaving her alone with the giant.

Eve turned to look at the giant before drifting over to it. She cocked her head to the side, sensing a sort of kinship with the giant machine who stared back at her with large white eyes.

For she could tell that this robot was far more than a machine. There was something within it. Something more than wires and programming. Something similar to what she had. A personality, a consciousness...and perhaps something even more than that.

* * *

A few hours later Riley awoke. She sat up and yawned, stretching her arms over her head and rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes before throwing back the blankets. She exited the borrowed quest room she'd slept in and made her way down the hall, then down the stairs, and then to the kitchen.

Riley still didn't know who owned this house. Supposedly Night Fury did and the Big Four's secret base was underneath it. Riley was impressed by it's size. It was a mansion, a kind of home she'd only ever seen on TV.

She walked into the kitchen and froze, finding her mentor at the stove, cooking away with her back toward her. Riley swallowed before trying to quietly back out of the room without being heard.

"Sit down Riley," Rapunzel suddenly said, back still toward her. Riley froze, squeezing her eyes shut and suppressing a groan before entering. She made her way to the table before pulling out a chair and taking a seat.

She hadn't wanted to talk with Rapunzel so soon. For she was dreading what the consequences of her disobedience from last night would be.

Rapunzel didn't say anything as she cooked. Preparing a plate for her protege. She placed a few pancakes on a plate, alongside some bacon, and eggs before walking over to the table and placing it before her. She then retrieved a cup before going to the fridge and pouring a glass of milk for the girl. She placed it before her before taking a seat in a chair across from her.

"Eat your breakfast," she ordered. Riley did as told, picking up her silverware before cutting into the pancakes and beginning to eat. She ate in silence, trying her best not to meet her mentor's gaze or drop her silverware out of nervousness. She could feel Rapunzel's eyes on her, and she could tell she was still displeased at her unsupervised excursion as Spectrum.

"You disobeyed my direct order Riley," Rapunzel finally said.

Riley stopped with some eggs still in her mouth. She chewed slowly before swallowing. "Yes," she admitted, head down in guilt.

"Riley, you need to understand that I can't have you out doing things as Spectrum by yourself," Rapunzel told her, voice firm and tone serious. "Anything you do reflects on me. You're my apprentice, and I need to be able to trust you to listen to me. Understand?"

"Yes. I'm sorry," Riley muttered quietly.

Rapunzel let out a breath, calming down. It couldn't be helped. Riley was young and at that age where she was going to start making her own decisions. Just hopefully she could get her to think a little more about her actions before she did them.

"Alright," Rapunzel said as she stood up. She walked around the table to rub Riley's head affectionately, letting her know she'd been forgiven. Riley smiled up at her mentor with a blush as Rapunzel smiled back. "Eat up and then call your parents. Let them know you're in Berk. Just tell them we're doing superhero training stuff."

"Ok," Riley said with a nod.

"Good girl," Rapunzel said in approval. "Then we'll see what Night Fury has found out about your new friend."

* * *

Eve, Wall-e, and a handful of the base's other maintenance bots were gathered around, observing and watching as the giant robot ate pieces of scrap metal that Wall-e and the others had managed to scrounge up. They were all curious, having never seen a robot quite like the giant one before them.

The giant ate it's scrap slowly, aware of the smaller robot's attention fixed on him.

The robots of the base stood behind Eve, their leader until she suddenly drifted upward and to the giant's eye level. The giant paused, scrap to it it's mouth as it looked to Eve.

"Directive?" Eve asked. The giant blinked and cocked it's head, not quite comprehending the question. "Dir-ec-tive," she repeated once again only slower. "Purpose? Function?" she said to rephrase. The giant didn't respond. Eve decided to try a different approach.

"Name?" she asked. "Eve," she said as she gestured to herself. Then she held her hand outward to the giant and waited.

"Giant," the giant said as he placed a hand on himself. He vaguely remembered being referred to by that name by...someone.

"Directive?" she asked again. "Machine. Creation," she said as she pointed at herself and then him. "Creator? Directive? Purpose? Function?"

The giant blinked as he shifted his gaze away from Eve. He stared at nothing in particular. His mind drifting off as he tried to recall his origins. Eve and the other robots watched as the giant raised a hand to the side of his head, rubbing the area around the dent. It seemed as if it remembered something as it's eyes grew wide. Eve noticed a spike in energy levels coming from the giant as it's eyes began to go from white to red.

"Hey big guy!" came a gleeful shout as Riley entered the hangar. The giant's eyes returned to normal as the teen flew up to his face. She smiled at him. "Miss me?" she asked with a smile.

The giant smiled at her, having missed her company despite only a few hours having passed.

"So what do you want to do today?"

* * *

Meanwhile, Hiccup and the other members of the Big Four were in his lab discussing what Hiccup had been able to discover from the giant.

"The metal isn't any found on the periodic table," Hiccup said as he gestured to the data on his computer screen. "It's harder and more durable than nearly anything I've seen. And it's power source," he said, pausing to type on keyboard. "It's giving off some kind of energy, the closest of which I can compare is to my plasma core. Only several times more efficient and-"

"Cut to the chase Hiccup," Jack said.

Hiccup sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't want to jump the gun...but I think we're dealing with a robot from outer space," he concluded

Everyone stared at him blankly, waiting to see if this was some kind of joke. But Hiccup's face was serious.

"An alien robot?" Rapunzel asked for clarification.

"Yes," Hiccup said with a nod.

Everyone had to take a moment to process this possibility. A machine built by aliens. Sitting right in their base.

"Are you sure no one on earth could have made it?" Merida asked. "Someone as smart as you?"

Hiccup tapped his chin. "I'm one of the leading experts on robotics in the world. There's no way someone could make something like this without me knowing. And that still wouldn't explain the metal from which it's made being like nothing on this planet," he explained.

"You don't seem that hyped over this Hic," Jack noted. Hiccup looked to him, his mouth a thin pensive line. "We just brought you a robot from outer space. You should be nerding out right now."

"I'm too busy wondering why exactly it's here," he said.

"What do you mean?" Rapunzel asked.

"You don't build something without a reason," Hiccup said. "And scientists have always theorized that our encounter with aliens wouldn't exactly be a friendly one. They believed that the scenario would be similar to Columbus and the Native Americans," he said grimly.

"You think it might be here for not so friendly reasons?" Merida asked.

"Possibly. I can't say for _sure_ ," Hiccup admitted. "But let's just keep an eye on it."

* * *

"So this is Night Fury's house," Riley explained. She and the giant were now outside. She was showing the giant around, and could do so since Night Fury's home was on the outskirts of the city, with no neighbors and away from prying eyes. The giant looked around and hummed, staring out over the water and to the city in the distance. He looked to Riley and then pointed at it.

"Oh, that's Berk," she explained.

"Berk," the giant repeated.

"Right," Riley said with a nod. She pulled out her communicator and pulled up a picture before having it project the picture as a hologram. "This is Night Fury," she said as she showed him a picture of the armored hero. "This is Archer," she said as she showed him a new picture. "This is Frost. And this is my mentor, Limelight. They're called the Big Four. They're a team of superheroes, just like Superman," she explained.

The giant made a thoughtful noise, staring out over the water. The view niggling something within the depths of it's memory.

"Riley!" Riley turned in midair to see Rapunzel and Jack floating up to her in their hero guises.

"Hey Rapunzel. Hey Jack...why are you guys dressed up?" she asked as she gestured to their hero outfits.

"We're heading back to Corona," Rapunzel said.

"Oh," Riley said, blinking at her response. "Ok. Let me go change. Be back-"

"No," Rapunzel said, cutting her off. Riley closed her mouth and stared at her mentor. " _We're_ going back to Corona," she reiterated, this time gesturing to Jack and herself. "You're staying here."

"What! Why?!" Riley cried in surprise.

"For disobeying me."

"But-but-"

"You didn't think you weren't going to get punished for that, did you?" Rapunzel asked, hands on her hips.

Riley sighed, shoulders slumping and head going down in disappointment. "Ok."

"Oh, and while you're here, you're going to have to do chores around the base," Rapunzel added.

"Awww!" Riley groaned.

"Which means scrubbing down the Timberjack."

"Awwwwwww!"

"Cleaning all the bathrooms."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!"

"And doing absolutely no superhero activities for the rest of the day and tomorrow."

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Riley groaned sullenly.

"And to make sure you do everything you're supposed to, Archer is going to supervise you."

"Ugghhhhhh!" Riley groaned miserably.

With that Rapunzel smirked before drifting by her protege. Jack followed behind her, shrugging helplessly at the young hero apprentice, and knowing he couldn't interfere with his girlfriend's decision.

"Be good. Listen to Archer. We'll be back later tonight," Rapunzel said. Her eyes drifted to the giant, she still didn't fully trust it. But Riley's presence seemed to keep it calm. That was also partially the reason she was having Riley stay at the base.

"Bye sweetie," Rapunzel said before she and Jack started to fly away and eventually disappear into the distance.

Riley and the giant remained staring out after the disappearing heroes when suddenly a loud whistle grabbed their attention. Riley turned and looked down to see Archer looking up at her, a sponge and bucket in both hands.

"Come on kid. Time to do your time," she called up to her.

"Ugh!" Riley said in relent as she drifted down to the hero. She grabbed the brush and bucket and waited to follow after the older heroine.

"You!" Archer called up, pointing directly at the giant. The giant straightened up at being referred to directly. "Stay!" she commanded, pointing down at the ground for emphasis. With that Archer turned on her heel and headed for the entrance of the mansion while the giant stood there and watched Riley leave.

The giant wasn't sure what to do as it stood on the spot awkwardly. With nothing in mind the giant simply turned around and lowered itself to the ground, sitting and staring out over the water.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away from the base of the Big Four, in a compound that was even bigger and just as impressive, one of the most brilliant minds on the planet was hard at work. Inside his lab at area 50-something Dr. Cockroach was using his equipment to try and find the mysterious metal being encountered earlier.

The Doctor hummed, finger at his chin and antennae twitching in thought. He went to his computers, typing away at the keyboards as he tried another tactic.

The door to his lab suddenly opened as the Missing Link walked right in. "Hey Doc. How's it going?" he asked as he entered the lab.

"Sorry Link. Busy," the Doc. said as he kept his attention fixed on his computers. Link came up behind him, staring at what looked like a satellite image of most of the western hemisphere.

"Trying to find the metal thing we found in Iceland?" Link asked.

"Indeed."

"Any luck?"

"Yes and no," the Doc. said with a sigh. He typed away as he pulled up a series of dots on the screen. "Our satellites followed the giant from Iceland to the eastern coast of the U.S. But then it suddenly disappeared off the map," he explained. "With satellite tracking of no use I then sought to try and track it's signal."

"Signal?" Link asked.

"Indeed. That mysterious interference we picked up in Iceland. It was some kind of signal being broadcasted by the giant. I was able to isolate it and then began searching for that same mysterious frequency," he explained.

"How'd that go?" Link asked.

"Well somehow the giant seems to be hiding itself. But a few hours ago I picked up the signal again. Being broadcasted from somewhere inland. But it disappeared before I could triangulate its origins," he said in frustration.

"Well if this thing is from space...maybe we could get Squeep to-"

"Absolutely not!" Dr. Cockroach yelled. "I don't need the assistance of some...child," the Doc. said firmly. "I can do it on my own," he muttered as he went back to work.

Link looked at his comrade before shrugging. "Suit yourself Doc. Good luck," he said before turning on his heel and walking out of the room.

With that the Doctor got back to his search, eyes narrowed in concentration. "Where are you giant?"

* * *

Back in Berk Riley was finishing scrubbing the floor. She had a bristled mop in both hands as she floated above the ground, scrubbing and scrubbing while Archer kept a watchful eye on her. Riley was tired, arms sore from all the chores Archer had forced her to complete. All of which she made he do without the use of her powers, save for this very last task.

With the last bit of the last corridor scrubbed Riley placed the bristled mop back into its bucket and let out a heavy sigh. She looked up to Archer hopefully and asked, "Am I done yet?"

Archer hummed as she looked down at the floor, inspecting it with sharp scrutinizing eyes and holding off on answering her for effect. "I suppose so," Archer said with a satisfied shrug. She held out her hands while Riley beamed and gave her the cleaning tools. "You behave yourself from now lass, next time I'll have you clean the base _and_ mansion," Archer warned.

Riley nodded and waited for Archer to give her the ok to leave. Archer did with a wave of her hand. Riley grinned before flying off. She made her way up to the mansion before flying out the back door and to the backyard. "Giant!" she shouted in greeting. The giant turned it's gaze from the distant city and the water to smile at the sight of her. Riley flew up to him before settling on his shoulder. The giant did nothing to stop her, her presence feeling almost natural.

"Ugh. I'm sooooo tired," Spectrum said with a groan. The giant glanced down at her inquisitively. "I just spent hours cleaning the base," she explained. "I also scrubbed the Timberjack, Seashocker, dusted the computer, changed the light bulbs in every room, man I'm exhausted," she said as she stretched her arms over her head.

"So how about you? What have you done this entire time?" she asked the giant. The giant blinked before simply shrugging its shoulders. "Lucky," she teased with a grin. Riley stared down at the water, watching the waves crash against the cliff face over and over.

"Hmmm. Swimming sounds good," she said to herself.

"Swimming?" the giant asked, the word tingling something in the back of his mind.

"Yeah. You know, going in the water?" she said as she pointed at the waves below. "As a matter of fact..." Riley trailed off. She looked out at the waves in thought before smiling. She stood up on the giant shoulder before shooting away. "Be right back!" she called. The giant watched her shoot away and waited, a few minutes later she reappeared, wearing a multicolored one piece swimsuit.

"Like it?" she asked, giving a mid air twirl to show off her swimsuit. The giant didn't respond. She only smiled before suddenly shooting forward and over the water before letting herself simply drop. The giant gasped before leaning forward in panic and watching as she went plummeting to the water below. She disappeared beneath the water with a splash.

The giant stood up, eyes darting frantically in search of Riley. Soon enough she reappeared. She let out a shout of excitement. "Whoooo! That was awesome!" Riley shouted up to him. Riley liked to have fun with her powers, and since she could fly through the air at subsonic speeds a jump off a cliff was hardly anything to her.

She suddenly noticed how cold the water was. She began to shiver, wrapping her arms around herself and listening to her teeth chatter together. She looked up at the giant, giving him a strained smile as he stared down at her, cocking his head to the side.

"Come on in!" she shouted. "The water is...fine-" she said through shivers and clacking teeth.

The giant stared down at her, blinking at her before taking a step backward. "Hey! Where you going!?" she shouted up at him as he backed away and out of sight. "Oh don't tell me you're afraid! You big metal wuss!" she shouted after him. She frowned up at the empty ledge, only to hear the rapid rumble of giant footsteps.

And suddenly the giant leapt off the edge with a cry, tucking its arms and legs in to make a giant cannonball. Riley's eyes widened as she paddled to quickly get out of the way.

Meanwhile, Archer had come outside to check on Riley and the giant. She came outside only to find the giant making a run toward the edge of the cliff before it leapt off. Her eyes widened as she rushed to edge. She saw the giant crash into the water, making a giant splash. She could only stand there as a huge pillar of water emanated from where the giant had disappeared before a wall of water washed over her.

When it passed she was standing there completely drenched. She spit out some water and scowled.

Back in the water the giant remained with only it's head peaking out. He looked around for Riley in approval. He heard laughter and looked up at Riley, perched on a lower cliff face where she'd ended up after the giant's cannonball. She flew down to him, giving him two thumbs up and a smile.

"Best cannonball ever! Whooo!"

* * *

After a few hours of swimming the sun went down. The giant and Riley were sitting in the hangar, staring out over the ocean. Riley was talking about herself, her family, her life, her friends, her move to San Francisco. The giant listened with interest, watching her while eating the occasional piece of metal scrap.

"Then I used my electrical powers to shock the bear guy. And that's how I defeated my first villain!" Riley said with a proud smile. She glanced at the giant as he gave a thoughtful hum. "So how about you big guy? You remember anything?"

"Rem-ember?"

"Well yeah. Someone had to have made you. And you know things. You know guns are bad. You know who superman is. Someone had to have taught you this stuff," she reasoned.

"I-don't-" the giant raised a hand up, subconsciously rubbing the side of it's head.

"Must be that bump on your head," Riley said. "Gave you amnesia I bet." The giant looked to her, downcast at what it couldn't remember. Riley felt bad for it. What was it like to not know anything about yourself? No memories to define you, experiences to shape who you were. It was certain events in Riley's life that made her who she was.

Like the first time she ever hit a puck into a goal that made her fall in love with hockey. Or the time she nearly ran away from home and then reunited with her parents to make her realize how much she had and how thankful she was for her family. Or when she first used her powers to help Limelight to make her want to be a hero.

"It's ok," she said to him gently. "I'm sure they'll come back," she said to reassure him.

The giant seemed to heed her words as he smiled at her.

"Riley!" Riley glanced back to see Archer coming into the hangar. "You. Bedtime!" she commanded.

"But I was going to stay with the giant!" Riley said to her.

"I'm sure the big metal robot will survive without you for a few hours. Now bedtime!" she said as he jerked a thumb back out the exit of the hangar.

"Fine," Riley said defeat. She floated off the giant's shoulder, first flying up to the front of it's face. "Night big guy. See you tomorrow." He gave a nod in understanding and acceptance, watching as Riley flew over to Archer and then left the hangar with her.

The giant turned to look back out over the water. It shifted around lying down on it's back as it stared out into the distance.

Hiccup stared at the video feed of the hangar. Watching the giant with mixed emotions. From what he'd seen, it was docile. Hadn't attacked or hurt anyone. That he knew of at least. But what was it's purpose? Why had it been built? Where was it from?

He rubbed his chin in thought. He needed answers.

"Eve," he said aloud. The robot drifted over to his side. He watched the video feed to see the giant appeared to be falling asleep. Perhaps entering a low power mode. "I want you to try and hack into the giant's system. See what you can learn about it," he ordered. Eve gave a nod before turning and hovering off.

"What are you?" Hiccup said to himself as he watched the giant sleep.

As the giant slept Eve entered the hangar. She drifted over to it slowly, trying her best not to awaken it. She stopped at the side of it's head. She cocked her head to the side in thought before raised a hand up. She placed her fingers againt the surface of the giants head and began to try and interface with it.

As she did the giant made sounds of discomfort. Eve ignored it's twitching as she attempted to understand the strange alien language that was it's coding. It was unlike any she was familiar with, but with some effort she managed to decipher and make sense of it bit by bit.

She eventually found what she was looking for. The space where it stored it's memories. Like herself the giant seemed to record anything it had seen. She saw recording of a place, a child, what looked like a small militia. Lastly an explosion, a great flash of light and then nothing but ice and snow.

Eve wasn't sure what to make of it until she found yet another file. Something older. Some kind of protocol that had been corrupted. She opened it.

Eve's eyes widened in horror at what she saw. The giant's groaning and sounds of distress ceased as she took her hand off it and flew away. She immediately went back to Hiccup.

"Find anything?" Hiccup asked. She nodded rapidly before taking control of the computer. She began to show Hiccup all she'd recorded.

Dread began to creep into Hiccup's veins as he took in what Eve was showing him.

They had a reason to be wary.

A big reason.

* * *

 **new chap.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Oops**

The Big Four were communicating via live video chat, discussing the giant metal elephant sitting in the hangar of the base. Eve had found something last night whilst hacking into the giant's memories. She'd found something, and they were currently all watching it. Merida stood behind Hiccup as they stared up at the computer screen while Jack and Rapunzel were watching the same thing in Corona city on their communicators.

They were all silent as they watched a video of not only one, but an army of giant metal robots destroying a planet. Eye all red, weapons decimating cities and the forces sent to stop them. Ultimately the video revealed the giant's true purpose and design.

"He's a walking weapon of mass destruction," Hiccup said grimly. "Sent to destroy us."

"There's so many of them," Merida whispered in horror.

"He's probably a scout," Hiccup offered. "Goes to a planet, scopes out whether or not it's worth attacking, then the others swoop in and there goes the planet."

"So what do we do now? Destroy it?" Jack asked.

"That's what I thought would be best...at first," Hiccup said. He raised a hand up and tapped a key on the computer. A moment later a picture was displayed on the computers and the communicators. Everyone furrowed their brows and cocked their heads at the new picture.

"What is that?" Rapunzel asked.

"It's a statue," Hiccup explained. "Located in Rockwell, Maine," he began. "I did some digging. And stumbled upon this and a newspaper story. In the October of 1957 our metal friend here was discovered in the town of Rockwell. He became a town hero, saving it from a nuclear bomb. This statue was made in its memory and to honor its sacrifice," he explained.

"How come this wasn't a national story? A robot from outer space should've made headlines around the world," Jack asked.

"This was 1957. People didn't carry around smartphones with built in cameras. There was never any recorded evidence, so it was written off as a local legend, like the Jersey Devil or big foot," Hiccup said with a shrug.

"That's...incredible," Rapunzel said quietly in astonishment.

"But where has he been all this time? It's been almost sixty years," Merida pointed out.

"Not sure," Hiccup answered. "Regardless, it appears it's initial protocols have been...corrupted. Forgotten." He paused and raised his hands up, hitting a few series of keys until he pulled up a multitude of lines of unknown and constantly changing symbols.

"What are we looking at Hic?" Merida asked curiously.

"What you're looking at is a learning algorithm. The same thing can be found in Eve and Wall-e. It's what makes them...them. Gives them personality. Feelings. In essence...a soul."

"So maybe it's more than what it was made to be. Maybe it's chosen to be more than what he was built for," he hit a key, pulling up a live video feed of the giant that was currently spending time with Riley. Being completely careful not to step on her.

"Should we be expecting an reign of giants robots to appear out of the sky Hiccup?" Rapunzel asked nervously.

"It's been here for sixty years. I'd like to think if we were going to be invaded, it would have happened already," he said with a shrug.

"That still leaves the question of what exactly we are going to do with it?"

* * *

"And then I just hit it!" Riley said as she hit small red ball. It went flying straight through the gap in the giant's legs at blinding speed. "See? Cool right?" she called up to him, only to find him facing away from her, not paying attention. "Hey! Are you listening!?" she shouted at him to grab his attention. He didn't acknowledge, staring out into the distance and standing stock still.

Riley frowned. She tapped into her powers. Her eyes and hair becoming a glowing yellow. She lowered her body and cocked back her hockey stick. On the ground before her was a few more balls. She swung her stick, hitting the ball with incredible power added from her telekinetic abilities. It flew upward, hitting the giant on the side of his head with a loud clang.

The giant flinched from the hit before finally glancing down at Riley. "It's rude to ignore someone you know!" She floated off the ground to the level of it's face. She slung her hockey stick across her shoulders. "What's wrong?" she asked before settling down and sitting on one of his shoulders.

"I-" the giant said before he looked back out over the water. "Remember..." he said.

Riley perked up in interest. "Really? You remember where you came from? Who made you and stuff?" she asked curiously.

The giant grunted, bringing a hand up to rub the area around the dent on the side of his head. "Ho-" the giant made a noise of frustration, eyes closing in effort as he attempted to complete the word Hog-"

"Hog?" Riley asked in confusion.

"Hog-"

"Hogie? Like the sandwich?"

"No," the giant said as it shook its head. It released a sigh before plopping down onto the ground in frustration, unable to complete it's thought.

"Well at least your memories are _starting_ to come back...right?" she offered to try and bring his spirits up. The giant released a another sigh. "It's ok big guy. It'll all come back to you eventually." The giant looked down at her and gave her a small smile, but behind it Riley could sense it was still saddened by what it couldn't recall.

She hummed in thought, trying to decide what she could do to take it's mind off it's troubles. "Oh!" she suddenly said as something came to mind. "I have an idea! Be right back!" she said hurriedly before flying off. The giant blinked and stared after her. She returned a few minutes later, a few cans of spray paint and a long length of red fabric she'd taken off the rac of one of the giant windows around the house.

The giant blinked at her and cocked its head curiously.

"Alright big guy, hold still."

* * *

Meanwhile in Area 50-something, various base operatives, the on hand members of team monster, and General Monger were gathered. After the appearance of the strange metal entity of which was likely alien in origin, the General hd delved into the U.S. top secret files to see if there was anything on it.

And to his surprise, there was.

"Alright everyone listen up!" Monger said loudly to grab everyone's attention. Everyone in the room stood at attention. "The following information is top secret. Anyone without blue level security clearance initiate blackout protocols now!" he ordered.

A few moments later a few of the personnel put their fingers to their ears, closed their eyes, and began to emit various noises to block out everything around them. Satisfied, General Monger looked to the entire room.

"Alright people. Approximately 48 hours ago a metal machine of alien origin was discovered by the Missing Link and the good Doctor in Iceland. Immediately after being unearthed the giant escaped and has hidden itself from our satellites. However, after looking into government files I have discovered that this is not the first encounter we have had with this thing."

The room flinched in surprise.

"Wait, you saying this thing has shown up before General?" Link asked.

"Affirmative. In the October of 1957 this thing appeared in the small town of Rockwell, Maine. Reports say that this thing had enough power to easily wipe out a small military company. Conventional weapons couldn't scratch even slow it down. And nothing short of a nuclear strike was able to finally bring it down."

"Wow," said in astonishment.

"Now I don't know how exactly this thing is hiding from us. But I want it found. It's a threat to national security!" the General said firmly.

"Not to worry General," the Doctor chimed in. Everyone looked to him in question. The bug man smiled triumphantly, pride evident in his eyes. "I believe I have the solution to our problems," he said. With that he reached into his lab coat and pulled out a small device. The device looked to be made from cardboard and various other bits of garbage and had two TV antenna sticking out of it.

"After analyzing the signal given off by the giant I believe I have found a way to track it." He explained with a smirk. "With this, I believe I can send a signal akin to a trojan horse into its software, forcing it to send out a homing beacon and thus allowing us to locate it!" he declared with pride.

"Nice," Link said as he pumped a fist. "Go team monster!"

"Well don't just stand there Doc. Do it!" General ordered.

With a nod the Doctor paused to look down at the device in his hands. He took a breath, reciting a silent prayer in his mind as his thumb hovered over the big red button.

A moment later, he pushed the button.

* * *

Back in Berk the giant was looking down at his chest, with was now adorned with a bright red 'S', spray painted by Riley. And tied around his neck was a long red curtain. Riley smiled in enthusiasm and gave the giant a thumbs up.

"You look great big guy!" she shouted up at him. "Now pose a little!" she told him. The giant looked down at her in question. "Like this!" she said, placing her hands on her hips and lifting her chin up whilst spreading her legs.

The giant hummed, cocking his head as he looked down at her. After giving her a once over he did the same, placing metal fists against his hips, spreading his legs, and lifting his chin up.

"Ok! Now don't move!" Riley shouted. She pulled her communicator from her pocket and raised it up, activating the camera on it before taking a picture. "Perfect!" she said with a grin. "Ok. Now selfie!" She flew upward, hovering in front of his face and raising her communicator up. "Smile!" she said as he put on her best photogenic grin. The giant did the same before she took another picture.

She opted for one more. So she set the camera on her phone to a time and then propped her communicator against a tree. With a bit of finagling she managed to find a position in which she could take a picture of them both. She prepared to start the timer and looked to the giant.

"Ready!?" she shouted at him. He nodded, prompting her to activate the timer. She rushed over to stand before him and they posed together, her standing between his legs, hands on hips, and wide smile, while the giant did the same. When she was relatively sure the picture had been taken she retrieved her communicator and looked it over. She laughed in delight, finding the picture both funny and pretty awesome.

She floated up to the giants face, having her communicator project a hologram of the picture for him to see. The giant 'oh'ed in surprise, liking the picture himself before smiling at Riley happily.

"I think it's a good picture," Riley said with a satisfied nod. "Oh look. I can even change the background," Riley said as she began to fiddle with the picture. As she was doing so the suddenly flinched, body going rigid and eyes going wide. Riley was too busy messing with her communicator to notice the giant's eyes going from their normal white to the menacing red. It's eyes shrank, becoming narrow and small, while the bump on the side of it's head suddenly pushed outward, disappearing completely.

"Look, now it looks like we're next to the Eiffel Tow-er," Riley finished as she looked up and noticed the giant's eyes having changed. The giant remained on the spot, stock still and eyes red. "Big guy?" Riley said in question. "Giant?"

The giant suddenly turned on it's heel, walking away from her and through the yard, trampling bushes and pushing over trees as it headed straight for the mansion. Riley furrowed her brows in confusion. The giant was usually pretty careful about where he stepped. And why was he acting so weird.

"Hey!" she shouted to him as she floated after him. The giant ignored her as it continued it's way to the house, head moving side to side as it swept over the yard and foliage. Soon enough it came to the side of the large mansion, attention directed downward. Riley floated at his side. "Giant? What's up?" she asked it, confused by it's sudden behavior.

Without warning the giant suddenly raised its hands up and brought them down, breaking through the side of the mansion with a loud crash. Riley gasped and reeled back in surprise and watched in shock as the giant began tearing into the house.

"HEY!" Riley shouted in horror. "What are you doing! Stop!" she cried in protest. But the giant ignored her, ripping through the structure before it finally found what it was looking for.

Metal.

Much of it, in the form of many an expensive sports car. The giant reached out, plucking two of them off the ground before beginning to devour them.

Riley placed a hand over her mouth, eyes wide and stomach dropping.

Night Fury was going to be so angry!

"My house!" came a shout. Riley flinched before looking down to see both Archer and Night Fury now outside. Archer was gaping in shock, and though she couldn't see his face, she had a pretty good idea Night Fury was as well. "My cars!" he shouted.

"Riley what the bloody hell is going on!?" Archer shouted.

"I don't know!" Riley shouted back, unsure why the giant was acting like this. "He got hungry I guess!" she shouted back sheepishly.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Night Fury shouted. The giant didn't even glance his way as it picked up another car. "No! Not the Shelby! NOT THE SHELBY!" Night Fury shouted as the giant proceeded to take a huge bite out of his collectible black mustang. After ripping a huge chunk out of it the giant proceeded to shove it down it's mouth.

"That's enough!" Night Fury shouted as he pointed his palms at the giant's head and let loose two blasts of plasma energy. The plasma collided with the side of the giant's head and exploded. The giant froze, the area suddenly becoming silent before it turned it's head, red eyes zeroing on Night Fury.

It's scanner detected the energy levels coming from the plasma core on his chest and hands.

The three heroes remained silent and still as the giant's attention remained fixed on Night Fury. It dropped the remains of the cars it was holding before standing up. It suddenly raised its left arm, pointing it at Night Fury. Then to everyone's surprise his arms changed, the hand folding away and a large cannon suddenly springing out from within it's elbow.

Riley remained in the air, watching in stunned silence as a large blast of green energy was let loose from the barrel of the cannon.

Archer and Night Fury both dove out of the way. As the energy collided with the ground, exploding in a green flash of light that blew a gaping, smoldering hole in the ground. Overcoming their collective surprise Archer drew her bow and grabbed an arrow from her quiver. She notched the arrow and pulled back on the drawstring as she took aim. A moment later she let it loose right as the giant began setting its sight on Night Fury again.

The arrows sailed upward, hitting the giant in the face and exploding. The giant wasn't even rocked by the explosion, eyes shifting to Archer, scanners detecting her plethora of high tech arrows. It raised its other arm and pointed it at her. It too changed, becoming some kind of claw like weapon that fired a mass of more green energy

Archer dashed out of the way and leapt clear as the energy hit the ground, immediately vaporizing the piece it had hit and leaving nothing behind. Night Fury took to to the air, shooting blast of his plasma energy at the giant to try and distract it from Archer.

As he was attacking he also shouted through his comm for Eve.

"Eve! Activate the perimeter defense system now!" he commanded. From all around the yard, from under foliage, the pavement of the drive way, and the walls surrounding the mansion weapons emerged. All of which were directed at the giant. It began to be bombarded with plasma energy and even small missiles.

Yet despite the combined efforts of Night Fury's armaments, Archers arrows, and even the houses defenses...they were hardly doing a thing to it.

Archer quickly drew and fired another arrow. It flew up to the giant's face, exploding in a mass of foam that clung to it's face and blinded it. She was about to shout at Night Fury to attack while it was blinded, only for two beams of energy to suddenly blast the foam away. The giant swept it's laser vision across the yard and at Archer. Archer ran for it, leaping over foliage and serpentining around the yard with the energy beams in pursuit.

Luckily Night Fury swooped her up before they could reach her. But he was forced to evade as the giant began to try shoot him out of the air. The giant's attention was completely fixated on Night Fury and Archer. Intent to destroy them without prejudice.

Suddenly the giant was struck in the side of the head by an arch of electricity. It finally took it's attention off of Archer and Night Fury and turned it's head to the side. It gazed into the glaring face of Riley, eyes swirling with different colors, electricity crackling in one hand, and fire burning in the other.

"Stop it giant! Why are you attacking us?!" she shouted in hurt and anger. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she tried to understand and come up with a reasonable explanation as to why the giant had suddenly changed from her friend to a machine of mindless carnage.

The giant looked at her, blinking it's soulless red eyes as it assessed her. Then suddenly it swung its arm at her. Riley couldn't react in time as she was hit in the chest with the barrel of it's cannon arm. She went flying in the opposite direction, crashing through Night Fury's house before coming out the other side. She hit the ground, sliding through the dirt before remaining still.

Night Fury and Archer shouted in horror as the giant pointed the barrel of it's cannon arm at her unmoving and helpless form. It locked onto her, taking aim and building it's energy in preparation to fire when it's arm began to shake.

Something within him began to interfere, causing a malfunction that was making him hesitate. Images and recording of Riley began to play in his head. Her smile. Her laughter. The time they'd spent together.

"Spec-trum," the giant said in realization. Its eyes went from the menacing red to the usual docile white. The weapon on it's arms began to retract, the giant looked at it's arms in disbelief at what it had done. Then it looked back to Riley. "Spectrum!" it cried in worry as it made it's way toward her downed form.

It knelt before her, staring at her and waiting for her to move. But she didn't.

"No," it muttered, hands curling into fists on the side of it's head. _'Guns kill...it's bad to kill...'_ These words began to echo in the deepest reaches of it's memory, taught to it's by it's very first friend.

It remembered everything now. The child who wasn't Riley that had been his friend. The choice he'd made to never take a life. To never be a thing that killed. A vow he had sworn to himself to be more than what he was made to be.

And now he had broken it.

It raised it's head up, looking at Riley and reaching a hand out to touch her, hoping she'd wake.

Suddenly a loud crash echoed through the air, and the giant was suddenly sent flying from a powerful impact to it's side. It went sailing through the air, rolling along the ground before coming to a stop. The giant looked to at it's side to see a large dent in it near impervious frame.

It looked back to Riley, eyes widening as it was met with a golden eyes glare.

Limelight stood before her downed protege, shining eyes fixed on the giant before looking away. She stepped to the side, keeping the giant within her line of sight as she knelt down. She picked her apprentice up in her arms, trying to gently shake her awake. Riley didn't stir.

Rapunzel felt her veins fill with cold. Fear for her apprentice crashing through her. If only she hadn't left her here, she couldn't help but think. If only she had been here herself. A multitude of angry thoughts plague her before one began to burn in her mind like a blazing sun.

"YOU DID THIS!" she shouted at the giant.

The giant stood up, shaking his head, but unable to say anything.

"You hurt Riley! She was your friend! She trusted you!" she spat at him vehemently.

"No! I-I not-I" it said in confusion, not understanding how it'd come to this. Why he had done what he'd done. It looked up at Rapunzel imploringly, still concerned for Riley, desperate to know if she was alive. It took a step forward, with an angry cry Rapunzel raised her hand and fired off a sun blast.

The giant staggered back, glancing at the right part of it's chest plate to see a small hole blasted right through him. Limelight held her hand up, light radiating from her palm, having put in enough power in that last blast to rival the heat of a star. The giant looked up, looking at Rapunzel's angry face and then glancing around at all the destruction he'd caused.

With a cry of pain the giant turned and fled, taking to the air and flying off. The heroes watched it and regrouped around Rapunzel who held onto Riley. She had her hair wrapped around the teen, pouring her solar energy into her and trying to heal the unknown damage.

"C'mon Riley. Wake up. Please wake up," Rapunzel whispered as tears came to her eyes. She stroked the teen's face, praying for her to be ok.

"Please Riley. Wake up."

* * *

"Eureka!" Doctor Cockroach shouted in victory. He and the other members of Area 50-something looked at the monitors, seeing the red blip of their target. "It worked," the Doctor said, unaware of what he'd inadvertently done.

His device had activated the giant's signal, along with it's primary protocols, and the restoration of it's memories.

"It's on the move General!" one of the personnel called.

"So it is. And if I'm right I bet I know where it's head. Load up men! I want us ready to head out in 30!" Monger ordered.

"Oh dear," the Doctor suddenly said as he began observing the data on the screen.

The General and his friend looked at the Doctor.

"What is it Doc?" Link asked.

"If I'm reading this correctly...it appears that the giant's signal is also being projected...into deep space," the Doctor revealed.

"What!?" General Monger cried angrily.

"Yay! It's calling it's friends! We're going to have a party!" shouted Bob, the blue gelatinous mass that had been thankfully silent until now.

His comment was ignored as the General demanded an explanation.

"So E.T. is phoning home?" Link asked to make it as simple as possible.

"So it would seem. Which begs the question..." the Doctor began.

"How many chairs are we going to need for the party?" Bob said, face serious and tone grim.

"Who's on the other end?" Link finished after ignoring Bob's ridiculous statement. The General, the Doctor, and Link all exchanged nervous glances.

"General. For now I think it's best that I shut down the signal," the Doctor said as he pressed the button on his device. The device suddenly gave a spark and a sputter before it exploded, covering the Doctor's face and the front of his body in ash. "This isn't good," the Doctor muttered.

"Does this mean you can't stop this Doctor Cockroach?!" General Monger demanded angrily.

"Well perhaps in a few days after I've constructed-"

"A few days?! We could be looking at a full scale invasion by then. Negatory, the earth will not be destroyed under my watch. We're going to go in there, and destroy that thing before whatever it following its signal tracks it to earth!"

"Well if it's a fight we're heading into, might I suggest we fight fire with fire," the Doctor offered.

The General arched a brow while Link smirked in understanding. "You mean fight _giant_ , with _giant_ ," Link said as he rubbed his hands together. "I like the way you think Doc. I'll go get Susan," Link said as he began to run off. "Meet you guys in Rockwell!" he shouted back.

The General and the monsters watched him go before looking to the moving red dot on the screen.

"It's going to be one heck of a party Doc." Bob said jovially, ignorantly blissful of the dire situation they were in.

"Indeed Bob," the Doctor said with nod. Mind already working on a solution.

"Indeed."

* * *

 **if you're wondering what they were watching youtube the Iron's giants deleted dream scene.**

 **guest: I do not have a tumblr**


	7. Chapter 7

**Where it All Began**

Rapunzel sat beside a sleeping Riley. The young teen was laid out on a bed. She'd hardly moved at all since being struck by the Giant. And though medical scans from Eve had showed no signs of lasting damage, her telekinetic abilities having protected her from the full brunt of the blow, she hadn't woken up, making Rapunzel terribly worried about her.

She began to dread the worst. What if she never woke up? What would she tell her parents? She clenched her fists, dropping her head into her hands in lamentation. She believed it was her fault. For whose else could it be? And if Riley died-

"Rapunzel?" Rapunzel stiffened before raising her head up. She looked up to see Riley's eyes were open.

"Riley!" Rapunzel cried in relief and joy. She immediately scooped the teen up before squeezing her tightly in glee. "Oh I'm so glad you're ok Riley! I was so worried!" she said as she continued to squeeze.

Riley gasped and wheezed as Rapunzel's powerful grip pushed all the air from her lungs. She tried to take a breath, but was unable as her mentor's arms prevented her chest from expanding. "Rapunzel...can't breathe...crushing me..." Riley muttered out.

"Oh gosh, sorry," Rapunzel said as she loosened her grip. She placed her hands on the teen's shoulder and gave her a once over. She seemed fine. Her eyes were wide and alert, albeit slightly confused as she kept flicking them around the room.

Then they widened. "The Giant!" Riley said in realization. She squirmed from Rapunzel's grip and leapt out of bed. Rapunzel stood up as Riley faced her, "Where is the Giant? Is everyone ok? What happened?" she asked frantically.

"Easy Riley. Everyone is fine," Rapunzel assured her. "Well..."

* * *

"My house," Hiccup said as he looked over his partially destroyed home. His gazed wandered over the destroyed walls and the gaping hole the Giant had knocked Riley through. Then he scanned the yard, taking in numerous pieces of wood, metal, plaster, alongside the crushed foliage, trampled trees, and smoldering craters in the ground. Then he took note of the various car parts that remained from his garage, plucked out by the Giant and then devoured like moon pies.

He looked down and picked up a tire. "My 1969 ZL-1 Camaro," he said miserably.

"It's ok Hiccup," Merida said to try and cheer him up.

"Yeah. You can just buy another one, right?" Jack offered lightheartedly.

Hiccup hugged the tire to his chest. "Only 69 were ever made."

"Oh," Jack said. He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I restored them all myself. My collection. They all had their original parts and everything," Hiccup said.

Hiccup fell to his knees dramatically, dropping the tire and then throwing his hands up. "WHY?!"

* * *

"What about the Giant?" Riley asked again inside the base.

"He flew off," Rapunzel replied.

Riley blinked before looking down. Her shoulders drooped before Rapunzel heard her sniffle. She looked back up, eyes wet with tears. "He was my friend. So why? Why did he attack us?" she asked sadly. Rapunzel's heart went out to the teen. She could tell she was deeply hurt by the Giant's betrayal. It was obvious they'd bonded fairly strongly over the few days they'd known each other. To her, he had truly been a friend.

Rapunzel placed a hand on Riley's shoulder and gently led her back to the bed. She motioned her to sit, and once she had she took seat beside her. "There's something I need to tell you sweetie." Riley gave one last sniff before wiping the unshed tears away.

With that, Rapunzel began to tell Riley everything the Big Four had discovered. She told her how the Giant was a weapon, whose purpose on earth was to destroy it. Shock and disbelief flash across her face. She was torn, not wanting to believe but finding it hard due to what she'd witnessed.

"Riley-"

"No," she suddenly muttered. Rapunzel arched a brow as Riley looked up, eyes narrowed. "No. He isn't like that."

Rapunzel sighed. Riley was in denial. She couldn't blame her. Being betrayed by someone you trusted could do that to you. "Riley-"

Riley leapt off the bed. "No!" she said louder in rejection. "There has to be a reason. There just has to be." Rapunzel didn't know what else to say.

Their conversation was cut short as the door to the room opened. They both looked to it to find the rest of the Big Four entering. Night Fury lead the way with Archer and Jack behind him.

"You may not be wrong," Night Fury said aloud. He raised a hand up, and suddenly a holographic display appeared before his hand. "Watch this," he said. He waved his hand, showing everyone a video of the Giant before he went on his rampage. Everyone watched as Riley took pictures with him. Then suddenly he stiffened up and his eyes changed from their wide curious white to the menacing, narrow red.

"See how sudden that was?" Night Fury pointed out as he made the video rewind with a wave of his hand. "Now watch," he said as he let it play. The video showed the Giant making his way to the house. "His demeanor, posture, and even the way he walks has suddenly changed. It's like he became a different...'person'."

"What are you getting at Fury?" Rapunzel asked curiously.

"Just a second," he said. He waved his hand, fast forwarding the video past the moments where he and Archer had engaged it. He let it play at the point where the Giant had swatted Riley through his home. Everyone watched as he stared at her still form in the ground and proceeded to raise his cannon of an arm.

"See that," Fury pointed out. He zoomed in on the cannon arm. Everyone noticed how it seemed to be shaking. "Then we keep it playing," he said as he zoomed back out. Everyone watched as the Giant's weapons suddenly retracted back into his body. Then he began to make his way over to Riley.

"Look at the way he walks to Riley. He's back to normal. Then look at his face," he pointed out. "Confusion. Pain. Grief. Guilt. Even shame," he said. "Then of course you show up a few seconds later Rapunzel," he said. He dropped his hand and the holographic display vanished.

"I don't think the Giant was in full control of his actions," Fury finally revealed.

Everyone arched a brow while Riley felt a glimmer of hope and relief.

"How can you be sure?" Archer asked.

"I'm not. Not entirely at least. But the sudden change," he said as he snapped his fingers. "Like someone flipped a switch. Then there's the fact that he didn't kill Riley," he explained. "She was down. Helpless. Defenseless. He could have done it. But he didn't. Afterwards he seemed confused, even ashamed of what he'd done. Doesn't add up," he said with a shrug.

"That aside," Archer chimed in. "What are we going to do about a 50 foot robot that may go on a rampage at any moment?"

"She's right. This could happen again," Jack agreed. "And there could be innocent bystanders when it does."

Night Fury nodded in agreement. "We're going after him."

Rapunzel placed a hand on Riley's shoulder, making the teen look up at her mentor. "I think Riley should-"

"All of us," Fury added, his tone indicating there was no room to argue. "Get ready. We leave in ten minutes," he said before turning and leaving the room.

Jack and Archer followed behind.

"How we going to find him. Sattelite?" Jack asked.

"Nah. I have a pretty good idea where he's going."

* * *

Meanwhile, driving through the suburbs outside of Modesto California was a couple. The woman was from this area, and on her way to her parents house to introduce them to her new boyfriend. The woman, Susan Murphy was of average height, with white hair, fair skin, and dressed in casual clothing consisting of a purple T-shirt, blue jeans, and a simple pair of sneakers. She smiled to herself, holding the hand of her boyfriend as he drove them through her old neighborhood and staring out the window at the simple, quiet, and monotonous white picket houses around them.

Sometimes, simple was good.

"Everything alright Sue?"

Susan smiled before looking over to her boyfriend. "Everything is fine Wayne. Just glad that you're finally going to meet my parents. I've told them so much about you."

Wayne, her boyfriend, smiled. "Me too."

"I hope they like you."

"I'm sure they will. I'm a great people person," Wayne said confident and easy smile.

"Still," Susan began. "Probably best not to mention that you're an alien," she pointed out.

"What? But that's one of my best qualities," Wayne said with a playful grin. Susan stared at him blankly. "Not an alien. Got it. Just plain old human man, Wayne Scott. Nice to meet ya'," he said, giving her a wink. She chuckled before leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

They drove in silence for the next few minutes before Susan's parents house came into view. She pointed it out. Wayne pulled up to it before parking next to the sidewalk. He got out first before making his way over to Susan's door and opening it for her. She smiled in appreciation as she stepped out. He shut it before taking her hand in his own. He gave hers a gentle squeeze that she reciprocated before they prepared to make their way up to the front door.

But before they could even take a step the sound of a plane overhead made them look up. They both looked, shielding their eyes from the sun and the vortex produced by the large military plane slowly descending to land in the middle of the streets.

"Oh no," Susan said, slapping her forehead in annoyance. "I told those guys that I'm on vacation," she said with a scowl. The back of the plane opened as a familiar green figure began waving at her from inside.

"Susan! Hey Susan!"

"Friend of yours Sue?" Wayne asked curiously.

"It's me. Your buddy Link!"

Susan sighed, "Yes."

She waited as the plane landed before being approached by the fish man. "Hey Susan. Good to see ya," Link greeted as he stepped up to her. Then he turned his attention to the man beside her. He gave him a look up and down before extending a hand. "Sup. Missing Link. You must be Susan's new boyfriend. Good to meet ya," Link said as he kept his hand out.

Wayne smiled and took it, giving it a friendly shake. "Oh. Strong grip," Link noted, mildly impressed. "Anyway, down to business. Susan, we got a major problem. Like alien invasion level major."

"Ugh, Link. Can't you guys handle it without me. I'm about to have dinner with my parents," Susan complained.

"Oh come on. We'll be done in a snap. We just need to you go all ginormous and fight a giant robot. No biggie," Link said as he waved his hand about casually. "I wouldn't have come if I didn't think we'd need you Susan," he added seriously.

Susan sighed, rubbing her temples in annoyance, but ultimately knowing she couldn't ignore this. She looked to her boyfriend in apology. "Sorry Wayne. But duty calls," she said with a helpless shrug.

"Not a problem Sue. I understand," Wayne said in acceptance. With another sigh Susan went up to the door and knocked. Her parents opened it and greeted her a moment later before she explained that she had to go.

Meanwhile Link and Wayne were making idle chatter.

"So how much can you bench?" Link asked Wayne.

"Well-"

"Yeah, I can personally bench around 500," Link said casually. "But you could've probably guess that. I mean, look at this," he said before he began to flex his admittedly impressive biceps. Wayne didn't say anything as the fishman posed and showed off his physique.

"Alright Link. Let's go," Susan said as she made her way back up to them.

Before she could reach them Link grabbed Wayne's hand and pulled him closer. "Just so you know, I'm not always a nice monster. You hurt Susan and I'll have to show you my bad side," he threatened lowly. He backed away with a smile, "Alright man, good to meet you," he said as he made his way back to the plane.

"Be back soon babe," Susan told him. She leaned in and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. When their lips met Wayne wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her up. Susan hummed in delight, leg popping up as she succumb to the kiss.

All too soon he set her down. She smiled and blushed before following after the fishman. She entered the plane, pausing to give him one last wave before she went inside and vanished as the ramp rose up and closed behind them. Wayne watched as the plane carrying his girlfriend rose into the air and flew off.

Once it was gone he turned around to face Susan's parents. He put on his best smile as he walked up to them, arms spread out jovially in greeting. "Mr. and Mrs. Murphy. So good to meet you," he said as he stepped up to them. The couple had to look up, startled by how tall, muscular, rugged, and very handsome Susan's new boyfriend was.

"I'm Wayne. But you might know me by my stage name... _Music Man_."

* * *

Hours after attacking the Big Four the Giant had found his way back to Rockwell, Maine. Home of his first friend. The only one he was convinced that could convince him he wasn't a killing machine.

A gun.

He'd landed on the outskirts, in the forested area before he slowly made his way through the familiar woods. He looked around as he made his way through the thick wooded forests. All with trees nearly as tall as him and capable of obscuring his form. After an hour of maneuvering through the trees he found himself at a house he hadn't seen in sixty years.

The Hughes home hadn't changed all that much. A house sitting on a large plot of land with a barn and a wooden fence around it. The two story home looked like it'd received a new coat of paint and the roof had been redone. He made his way up to the house, circling around it looking for any sign that someone was home. He found none. No sounds or light in the home were on. He leaned down, looking in through one of the windows of the home.

He saw furniture and typical homely things.

Then suddenly a something leapt at the window from within. The Giant reeled back and fell on his backside in surprise to find a dog barking at him from within the home. The dog barked at him through the glass threateningly, growling and snarling in attempted to defend his home.

The Giant stood up, watching the dog and backing away. The Giant blinked before looking in the direction of the town. No one was home. The scrapyard was the next best option. Then perhaps the town. The Giant headed back for the trees before heading back to the scrapyard.

Within half an hour he'd arrived at the place where the scrapyard had been. It was still there, but at the moment it appeared to be unoccupied. The Giant hummed. Only one option remained. He turned toward the direction of the town and began to make his way toward it.

He reached the edge of the small town of Rockwell, watching the people go by. The town had gotten a little bigger, which confused him ever so slightly. But he ignored the changes, intent on finding his friend. His scanners zoomed in on the faces of the passerbys, specifically the children. He shifted his gaze around, trying to look at the town from every angle.

He circled the own from the outskirts, continuing to watch and scan the faces of children before he finally found him. His scanners zoomed in on a young boy playing with other children in the small park in the center of the town. The giant gasped, eyes widening as he laid eyes on the friend he hadn't seen in years.

He abandoned the cover of the trees, making his way straight into the town. He didn't bother hiding. Not from his friend and the town he knew and had saved. It wasn't too long however before he was noticed. He was a 50 foot robot, it was inevitable. People screamed. Cars in the streets slammed on their brakes, coming to screeching halts as they gaped in wonder at the recognizable town legend.

In the park a young boy was playing frisbee with his friends. They were all having a good time, enjoying themselves as they tossed the disk back and forth amongst themselves. As the boy caught the frisbee and prepared to throw it back to one of his friends they all suddenly froze up, eyes widening before they began to scream in terror and alarm.

The boy whirled around and froze, lower jaw falling open as he stared dumbfounded at the giant metal robot making it's way toward him. When his mind finally caught up to his body, he screamed and ran for it. The rest of his friends scattered, all of them going off in different direction while the giant pursued the boy. The boy felt his heart beating madly in his chest as he ran for his life.

He made his way to the edge of the park before continuing across the street and to the diner situated on the other side.

"Grampa! Grampa!" he shouted as he ripped the door open and dashed into the diner.

The Giant stopped before the diner, confused as to why his friend was running away from him. He thought he'd be glad to see him. But he'd only shouted and tun in fear. The Giant hung his head in sorrow. Thinking that maybe he'd been forgotten, or maybe his friend now believed he was merely a gun. A horrible thing that killed like he now thought he was.

The door to the diner opened, and from within the boy emerged, though hiding behind an older man, his grandfather. The Giant's eyes flicked up to the boy peeking around the older man. He extended a hand, "Hogarth," he said imploringly, wanting and hoping his friend would remember him.

"Hehehe," the older man chuckled as he looked up at the Giant. "Guess you don't remember me, do you buddy?" the man said as he chuckled some more. The Giant cocked his head in confusion as he stared at the old man's face. Something about him was...familiar.

"It's me Giant, I'm Hogarth," the old man said with a warm smile.

The Giant's eyes widened and he took a jarring step back in shock. He glanced back and forth between the boy and the old man who called himself Hogarth in confusion.

"This is my grandson. Hogarth Hughes III," Hogarth explained. "It's been sixty years. What can I say, I got old," he said with a shrug.

The Giant blinked before kneeling down and dropping onto his hands and knees. He bent over, lowering himself to almost eye level with the man. He squinted and cocked his head, still not entirely sure if he could believe him. "Ho-garth?" The old man smiled, wrinkles around his crinkling as he gave a nod.

"I always hoped I'd see you again. You saved me. You saved this whole town...you were our hero."

All around the people of the town gathered around to stare in wonder at a legend come to life. The elderly of the town recognized him, having been there that day.

"Hogarth," the Giant said one last time as his eyes widened in realization. It was him. His friend.

"It's good to see you again."

The Giant stared wide eyed at the man that was once the boy he knew as Hogarth. The man was tall, with a wrinkled face, and greying hair, wearing a dark leather jacket over a grey T-shirt. He was so different than the boy that was once his friend. Yet his smile, his laugh, were all the same as they had been decades ago.

Joy welled up within the Giant and his body trembled as tried to contain it. If he could shed tears, he would. He bowed his head as shame welled up within him. He doubled over, releasing a sound of anguish.

Hogarth arched a brow, recognizing sadness within his old friend. He took a step forward, as unafraid of his friend now as he had been as a child. He placed a hand against the Giant's head in concern.

"What's wrong Giant? Hey, what's wrong buddy?" Hogarth asked gently.

The Giant looked up, his eyes resonating sadness. "Hogarth," the Giant said in pain.

"Hey, it's ok," Hogarth said to comfort him.

"Guns kill. It's bad to kill," the Giant choked out, reciting Hogarth's own words to him. Guilt and shame roiled within him, gnawing at something within him as he stared into the person who'd taught him one of the most important lesson he'd taken to heart.

"I...killed..." the Giant struggled out, finding it hard to complete his statement, but knowing he had to. He could lie. Not to Hogarth. "Spec-"

"Giant!"

The Giant froze, eyes widening in disbelief. He and most of the town looked up to find a yellow streak flying through the sky, getting lower and closer. The Giant's scanners zoomed in, and he gasped. Soon enough the streak stopped a few feet away, hovering a few meters above the ground.

The townsfolk all gasped at the figure hovering in the air. What's more more figure followed behind, landing on the ground. Night Fury, Frost, and Limelight carrying Archer stood in silence, waiting and watching anxiously.

The Giant stared into the yellow eyes of Spectrum. She was in costume, like the day they'd met. And she was fine. Alive.

"Spectrum," the Giant said quietly in shock.

Spectrum hovered closer slowly while the other heroes watched on, tense and ready to leap into action at a moment's notice. She stopped just before him, looking into his eyes. She cocked her head to the side curiously. It appeared he was back to normal. His eyes were white, but also emanating sadness. And what have might have been...regret?

"Giant...do you...know me?" she asked to be certain he was back to his normal self.

"Spectrum. I-I-" the Giant tried to get out, but too overcome with emotion. He had to look away, too ashamed and guilt ridden to look her in the eye. Suddenly Spectrum pressed herself against the side of his head, arms spread out in a hug.

"I'm glad you're back to yourself," she whispered in relief and joy. She pulled back, smiling up at him warmly. The Giant still looked to be in pain, so she spoke up to try and relieve his guilt, "Hey it's ok buddy. It wasn't your fault. I'm fine," she said as she gestured to herself.

The heroes relaxed as they watched the Giant reconcile with Spectrum. Admittedly, it was quite the touching scene.

The townspeople all ogled the heroes in amazement. In their small town of Rockwell hardly anything exciting ever happened.

Hogarth watched the young hero interact his his old friend, reminded of his youth. He smiled and chuckled at the sight. "Looks like you made a new friend. Right Giant?" Hogarth called up to him. The Giant looked down at Hogarth and smiled.

Curious and interested Spectrum lowered herself down to the ground to get a better look at the Giant's new acquaintance.

"Hello," Spectrum said to greet the older man.

"Hello there young lady."

"Are you the Giant's friend? The one he forgot about?"

Hogarth chuckled. "That's me. Hogarth Hughes," he said to introduce himself. "The Giant and I knew each other a long time ago. I was probably around your age," he said with fond remembrance. "He saved our town. Sacrificed himself for all of us. Became a hero," he explained. He stared at the Giant's chest, taking note of the giant red 'S' spray painted on it.

"You always wanted to be Superman, didn't you?" he said with a laugh.

As Riley and Hogarth spoke the heroes were also talking, trying to figure out what their next move was. While the Giant was back to his docile self, there was still that slim, dangerous chance that he could go berserk all over again. Could they simply leave him be, here in Rockwell, and hope for the best? As they were trying to come up with a solution a faint noise began to drift down from the sky.

A distant but growing thumping noise began emanate in the distance. And the ground began to rumble and the building shake. The townspeople, heroes, and the Giant looked around to find helicopters flying over the town, converging to surround the Giant. And from the streets people began to flee in panic and alarm as tanks and armored vehicles began to roll through the streets.

The people began to disperse, with only Hogarth and his grandson remaining. The Giant looked around nervously, this scene an all too familiar sight.

"Giant!" Hogarth shouted to grab his attention. The Giant looked down, "Run!" he shouted. Hogarth knew what might happen if the army began to attack. He had to flee before they could start shooting.

The Giant looked around in panic before looking to Spectrum. "Go!" she shouted. She didn't want to see him get hurt. "Run!" she added, raising the volume of her voice in emphasis. The Giant's gaze flicked between her, Hogarth, and the army before he turned and began to run in the direction they'd yet to block off.

Meanwhile, the heroes tried to slow down the army.

The Giant ran fast, with helicopters in pursuit from above and tanks following from behind. He didn't know why he was being attacked, but he just knew he had to run. Just like Hogarth and Spectrum said. He reached the edge of the town, this particular route devoid of tanks and militia.

As Fury was blocking a tank his scanners suddenly picked up a huge energy source the likes of which he'd never encountered. A large black plane passed overhead, surpassing the Giant. The back of the plane was open and a figure leapt out. She fell through the air, seeing the giant metal machine fleeing the town. She narrowed her eyes and reached within herself, feeling the energy locked inside rushing to fill up every cell in her body.

As the Giant finally reached the edge of the town something collided with the ground before him. He slid to a stop, looking into the veil of dirt kicked up from whatever had fallen from the sky. The veil began to clear, the Giant's eyes widened and he backed away as he stared into the face of a human who was as big as he was.

Susan smiled, the plan to drive the Giant out of town and then cut him off having worked perfectly.

Susan in this form went by a different name. When she was like this she was called Ginormica. Government agent and leader of the covert team whose purpose was to monitor and respond to alien activity. She was one of the most powerful beings on planet, her entire body radiating an extraterrestrial energy greater than anything on earth.

Before the Giant could do anything Susan surged forward. She quickly grabbed his arm, twisted her body around, and then pulled. The Giant let out a startled cry as she flipped him over her shoulder and then slammed him into the ground. The ground shook from his impact.

The heroes gasped, about to rush forward to try and stop the fighting giants when a man on a jetpack suddenly flew into their path.

"Attention heroes. I am General Monger of Area 50-something. And I am ordering you to stand down!" Monger shouted.

"Area what?" Night Fury asked.

"This giant is of extraterrestrial origin and thus falls within my jurisdiction. Stand down or I will call the NSA!" he warned. At that all the heroes hesitated. The NSA were the leading authority over supers. And even though none of them were affiliated with the NSA they weren't looking to cross it.

Meanwhile the Giant and Susan were continuing their battle. Their steps made the ground tremble and tree topples. The grappled, hands intertwined as Susan pushed the Giant back with her enormous strength. All the while the Giant had refused to fight back, merely tried to defend himself from the giantess.

Susan kicked the Giant in the chest. He staggered backwards and fell to the ground before rolling out of the way as she drove her foot into the spot where his chest had been. As the Giant managed to get to his feet Susan struck him across the face with a powerful punch. The Giant's lower jaw became unhinged as the force of her blow made him spin. He fell to a knee, facing away from her as she advanced. He heard and felt her footsteps as she drew closer. As his jaw repaired itself his eyes went red, his defensive systems trying to take over for self preservation.

But so close to the town, and knowing he might end up destroying it. He shook his head and stopped himself. The Giant turned around to face her, raising his hands up in a gesture of surrender only for Susan to rush him. She grabbed his hand and swept his legs out from under him. She grabbed his leg and arm before she began to spin on her heels and build up momentum. She began to spin him around, getting faster and faster before she let him fly.

The Giant sailed a few hundred yards, hitting the ground hard and rolling to a stop. The Giant looked up as Susan began to advance on him yet again. He quickly made his way to his feet before activating his jet boosters on his feet. Susan began to rush forward.

"Link! Bob! Now!" she called aloud. Rushing up behind her were her teammates. Bob laughed as he grabbed Link and formed himself around him. Susan scooped Bob up and threw her hand out. Bob's gelatinous form extended, with Link at the end heading toward the Giant.

Link smiled as he flew threw the air, wind rushing in his ears. His arms were outstretched as he sailed right at the Giant. He grabbed onto one of his legs, quickly pulling himself up before swinging around in a circle. "Sh'ka!" Link shouted as he used Bob like a makeshift lasso to bind the Giant's legs.

He began to quickly climb down Bob's stretched out form with his powerful arms before leaping down onto Susan's shoulders. "All you Susan," Link said to his teammate. Susan nodded before she began to pull on Bob. Bob in turn began to retract his body, making himself shorter and shorter to aid his teammate.

The Giant did his best to try and fly away. But Susan's strength coupled with Bob's assistance made it impossible. With one final tug he went falling and crashing to the ground below.

"Everyone move in!" Susan shouted aloud. All around heavy vehicles with mounted cable guns pulled up and surrounded the Giant. They fired. The cables flew, many of them tipped with magnetic tips. The wrapped around the Giant's limbs and attached to his metal frame. The Giant struggled to pull them off as the vehicles pressed on the gas, keeping his arms stretched out to his sides.

A moment later a powerful electrical current began to run through the cables and into him. The Giant screamed in pain as a powerful current coursed through his body.

"Doc! You're up!" Susan called aloud.

From behind the ring of vehicles surrounding the Giant Doctor Cockroach rolled up on his invention. It was a hovering vehicle with a large satellite dish mounted on it and various TV antennae sticking out all around it. The Doctor sat on a lawnchair he'd added to use as a seat. He quickly typed on a simple keyboard he'd used as a control panel for his weapon. He began to power it up with a smile.

"A minute and a half and my EMP Repulsor cannon will fry this metal monstrosity," the Doc. shouted aloud. Then, true to his mad scientist persona, he let out a maniacal laugh. "Muhahahahahahahahah!"

Meanwhile the heroes only continued to watch, torn about whether they should interfere or not.

Though one of them wasn't so undecisive

"Giant no!" Spectrum shouted. She was about to rocket toward him and stop all of this when Rapunzel quickly wrapped her arms around her and held her tight. "Limelight! Let me go! They're hurting him!" she shouted as she struggled against her mentor's powerful hold.

"Spectrum stop. There's nothing we can do," Limelight said sadly. She didn't like watching this either, but she knew they couldn't stop this.

"Now you see here little missy!" Monger shouted as he lowered himself down to speak with Spectrum and the other heroes. "That Giant is currently projecting a signal out into deep space," he revealed. The heroes all flinched in surprise, having not known that until now.

"We have to destroy him and stop that signal before whatever might be following that signal makes it way to Momma Earth!" he declared.

"But what if nothing is coming?" Spectrum argued.

"That's not a risk we can take. So if I have to destroy one alien death machine to save earth, you better believe I will!" Monger shouted with resolve. With that he left the heroes, flying towards the Giant and his men to oversee its destruction.

The heroes exchanged a glance. Night Fury adjusted his scanners. "He's right," he said in confirmation. "The Giant is broadcasting some kind of signal. And we've seen what an army of him could do," he said, reminding everyone of the Giant's memories of more of his kind destroying a planet.

"I don't care!" Spectrum shouted. She suddenly vanished in a purple flash, appearing out of Limelight's arms. But before she could fly to her friend's aid Limelight flew in front of her, arms outstretched to block her.

"Spectrum, stop!" Limelight shouted. "We have to let them do this. It has to be done."

"But it's not his fault!" Spectrum cried. "He hasn't tried to destroy anything. He doesn't want to destroy anything! He could have killed me, or all of us any time he wanted," she cried desperately. "He's not even fighting back!" she shouted as she gestured to the screaming Giant, who had yet to activate his weapons during the army's attack.

"Riley," Limelight said with a sigh, not sure how to make her understand. "We can't go against the government on this. What they're doing-"

"Isn't right!" Spectrum cried shrilly, cutting her off in surprise. "You told me that sometimes the _right_ thing isn't doing what you're _told_ is right. You said that sometimes you have to do what you _feel_ is right," she reminded her.

Limelight remained silent as she recalled the words she spoken to her only a few days ago. Words she'd apparently taken to heart.

"Well this this doesn't feel right! He may have been _made_ to be a weapon, but that's not what he's _choosing_ to be! He's..." she paused, trying to think of an example. "He's like me," she realized. Limelight arched a brow in confusion. "The people who experimented on me, gave me my powers, I know what they were doing. They wanted to make me a weapon," she said quietly.

"I hurt people with my powers the first time I used them. I killed people," Spectrum muttered. Limelight couldn't help but flinch in surprise. Riley had never told her that, simply skimmed over the story of her escape. "If you'd known that when we first met...would you have given up on me?" she muttered sadly. "Would you think I would have need to be destroyed, or locked up for the sake of everyone else?"

"Of course not Riley," Limelight said to her.

"Then please," Riley said as she looked up, eyes on the brim with tears. "Don't just give up on him. Don't let them destroy him for something he had no control over."

She gave her mentor, one of the people she most admired and wanted to be like, one last imploring look.

"Don't let them kill my friend."

Limelight stared at her protege. Someone she cared about deeply. Someone she wanted to always set the best example for and do the right thing. She looked to her friends, they were looking up at her, also internally debating what they should do. After exchanging glances all eyes turned to their leader.

"The cannon is almost ready!" the Doctor shouted. "Ten more seconds!" he said as he watched the power levels reaching their maximum. "9...8...7...6...5...4...3" the Doctor counted down as he looked up and began to take aim. "2...1-GAHHHH!" the Doctor shouted as an explosion next to his position rocked the cannon. The cannon tilted off target at the last possible second, sending out a beam wavy bright yellow energy that missed the Giant.

The army blanched as arrows, ice, and golden beams of energy began severing the cables holding the Giant in place. Soon all of them were cut. The light from the Giant's eyes faded as he remained still and fell back, hitting the ground and remaining unmoving.

The army and the monsters watched as the Big Four formed up around the Giant. Spectrum on the other hand was trying to wake him up.

"What do you heroes think you're doing!" General Monger shouted angrily.

"Well..." Night Fury began. "Though he wrecked my house and ate my cars."

"Not to mention tried to kill us," Archer added.

"And also happens to be one of many Giant planet destroying robots sent to wipe us all out," Frost then added.

"We're not going to let you destroy him!" Limelight shouted firmly.

"Well why the sam hell not!" Monger shouted in frustration.

Spectrum flew above her mentor, eyes narrowed and eyes filled with resolve. Determined to defend her friend at all costs.

"Because it's what's _**right**_!"

* * *

 **new chap.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Monsters vs Heroes**

The soldiers of Area 50-something, alongside the members of team monster stared in shock at the sight of the Big Four, known super heroes, defending the metal giant threatening the world. The Big Four in turn stood before the Giant, determined to protect him. They didn't want to stand against the U.S. government, but they felt that this was right.

"All of you! Get out of the way!" General Monger shouted. "You're interfering in a government affair!"

"The General is right," Susan said as she took a step forward. "You all need to step aside," she said as she waved her arm.

The heroes didn't budge. Spectrum was busy muttering to the Giant, caressing the cool surface of his head as she attempted to wake him up.

"Come on you guys, we're just doing our job here," Link said as he stepped forward. "We're trying to save the world, just like you guys. Fighting aliens is what we do."

"We understand you're just doing your job," Night Fury said. "But so are we. The Giant isn't evil. We don't have to kill him. We can find another way."

"Absolutely not! I have made my decision and we are following through with it! Team Monster!" Monger cried. "Take them down!" he commanded.

The monsters all hesitated, not wanting to engage the heroes.

"But General, they're superheroes," Link said as he gestured to them.

"It doesn't matter," Susan said, eyes narrowed in determination and decisiveness. "We have to protect the world. No matter what it takes," she said as she took a step forward, prepared to move them aside by force if she had to.

The heroes tensed as the giantess bared down on them. Limelight sighed, seeing that negotiations had failed and a fight was imminent and unavoidable. She clenched her fists before rocketing toward her. The soldiers of Area 50-something all gasped at the sheer speed at which Limelight closed the distance. Susan flinched, eyes widening as Limelight appeared before her face with her arms cocked back. She had no time to react as Limelight threw a powerful punch.

Everyone watched as Limelight's single punched toppled the giantess, sending her falling back and crashing to the ground. The area trembled from her impact before she went still.

"Susan!" the members of team monster shouted in concern.

Limelight eyes Susan who remained on the ground unmoving. She turned in midair, eyes sweeping over the soldiers and the rest of team monster. She figured she'd just taken out the biggest threat. Maybe she could get them to back down with their big gun out of the fight.

She opened her mouth to tell them all to leave, when something suddenly blocked out the sun behind her. She turned around, only to be knocked aside by a giant hand. Limelight went flying at high speeds. Crashing through countless trees in the forest surrounding the town.

Limelight groaned as she pulled herself out of the trench she'd made when she hit the forest floor. She picked herself up, preparing to get back into the fight, only to fall to a knee. She shook her head and groaned. She raised a hand up to rub her temples. She'd been hit hard. Very hard. The giantess wasn't going to be to take down as she had originally thought.

But steeling herself for a fight she flew over the trees and back into the fray.

"Team Monster! Take them down!" Susan commanded as she watched Limelight fly back toward her.

The members of team monster nodded before turning their attention to the Big Four.

"Spectrum! We'll leave the soldiers and the Giant to you!" Archer called out as the Missing Link leapt at her. The Big Four all split up, with different members of team monster engaging them and forcing them apart.

Spectrum remained with the Giant, watching as her mentor faced down the Giantess. Meanwhile, the soldiers and Monger began to approach her and the Giant. She scowled, eyes narrowing and turning red in anger. Suddenly a wall of fire erupted in front of the line of soldiers. They all reeled back with startled shouts before raising their weapons as a figure began to walk through the flames.

The flames separated as Spectrum stepped through them. Her eyes and hair were a fiery red, the ends of her locks crackling and smoking in anger.

"I won't let you hurt him!" she shouted at them. "You're not going to hurt my friend!"

The soldiers were hesitant to act. Not only because she was a hero, but because she was also a child. Before they could come to a decision one of Spectrum's eyes turned green as did half of her hair. A moment later the soldiers doubled over, dropping their weapons and clutching their stomachs as they were hit by waves of sudden nausea. With the group of soldiers in front of her incapacitated for the moment Spectrum turned her attention to the others surrounding the Giant. She flew at them, intent on destroying their vehicles and weapons so they couldn't hurt the Giant anymore.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Big Four were fighting the members of team monster. Night Fury was in the air, weaving and strafing as she dodged blasts from Doctor Cockroach's EMP Repulsor cannon. As they fought, the Doctor was attempting to make conversation.

"You know despite the circumstances!" the Doctor shouted as he attempted to shoot Night Fury down, "I must admit it is a pleasure to meet you!"

"It's good to meet you too Doctor," Night Fury shouted back, firing off blast of plasma energy as she dodged the blast of the Doctor's cannon. "I've read your research on genetic splicing. As a matter of fact I met someone who used the same procedure on himself!"

"Really?" the Doctor shouted back, jerking his controls to the side to move his cannon out of the way of a plasma blast. "Interesting, now tell me," he said as he took aim. "What do you use to power your armor?"

"Oh well it's actually-" Night Fury began before stopping. He shook his head. "Doctor Cockroach, we don't have to destroy the Giant."

"Sorry Night Fury, but as a fellow man of science, you must see that the Giant's destruction is the only logical course of action."

"The logical course of action isn't always the best course of action," Night Fury argued.

"In this case it is!"

Meanwhile Archer and Link had made their way into the town. They stood in the middle of a street, standing a few meters apart and facing each other.

"Look lady," Link began. Archer arched a brow. "I know that I'm a monster, and you're a hero, and us fighting is like the way of the world and whatever, but we're seriously on the same side here," Link insisted. "So how about you and your friend just go and...I don't know...get a cat down from a tree or something while we do our job?"

"How about you go crawl into the Black Lagoon!" Archer spat at him.

"Ha. Monster joke, good one," Link said with a chuckle. Then he narrowed his eyes, starting to get serious. "But seriously," he paused to flex his biceps and strike a pose. "You don't want to tussle, with all this muscle. Sh'ka!" Archer stared at him as he began to throw punches, kicks, and do backflips before her.

"Hiyah! Yah! Hoo! Ha! Ninja! Sha! Hiya!" Link shouted. "Whoa!" he yelped as he narrowly dodged an arrow, eyeing it as it sailed by his face. He looked to Archer, who had her bow drawn. Link narrowed his eyes before he flinched, hearing something behind him. He saw her previously fired arrow making a U-turn and come flying back toward him.

"Oh man," Link muttered as he leapt into action. He dashed toward a building as he arrow closed in. He leapt toward it and backflipped away from it as the arrow imbedded into it's side.

Archer drew another arrow and fired. Link raised a foot and thrust it downward, kicking up a manhole cover and letting it block the arrow. Then he grabbed it before tossing it at her. Archer leapt out of the way. Link used this opportunity to close the distance, leaping over cars and diving at her with a battle cry. He tackled her, but Archer rolled with it, landing on her back before throwing him over her head.

Link landed on his back and let out a pain cry, "Ow...my back!"

Somewhere else in town Frost was flying in the air, shooting icy blast at his opponent, B.O.B. Jack frowned as the blob laughed and stretched his body, dodging his icy blasts like it were some kind of game. "Hold still blob!" Frost shouted in annoyance.

B.O.B stopped to look up at him. "No, actually it's B.O.B. B-2-Chicken-Butterfly-" Frost arched a brow as the blob was attempting, and failing, to spell his name. He was starting to get the feeling that his opponent wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

He pointed his staff at him and fired another icy blast. B.O.B jerked out of the way, but his arm was frozen solid. He looked to it, but only ended up smiling in delight. "Hey look, it's a me-cicle!" he cried as he broke his arm off and proceeded to suck on it like an ice pop.

Frost blinked and stared at the blob creature sucking on himself. "This is the weirdest fight I have ever been in," he muttered to himself.

Spectrum was tossing the soldiers of Area 50-something around. Literally. Her scarf extended, ensnaring them before would swing them around and into other soldiers. She flew around the Giant. Leaping onto their vehicles and ripping the mounted cable guns off their frames.

"Young lady! You stop that this instant! That is government property! It is really expensive!" Monger shouted at Spectrum. Spectrum ignored the General as she continued to rip apart their weapons and toss around his soldiers.

Limelight continued to battle Susan, using her speed to fly around and dodge her swinging hand while delivering blows to various sections of her body. Susan growled in annoyance as she tried to knock Limelight out of the air. But the heroine was an evasive target.

Limelight circled around her and flew low, hitting Susan in the back of her knee. Susan cried out she fell to a knee. Limelight circled around to the front and flew straight up, arm cocked back in preparation for an uppercut. But with amazing reflexes Susan clapped her hands together, smashing Limelight between her palms. When she opened her hands Limelight released a groan before falling to the ground, head ringing. She looked up, seeing double as Susan raised her foot up. She gasped and raised her hands up, palms holding up Susan's foot as she pressed down on her to keep her pinned.

"Limelight stop. I don't want to fight you," Susan told her with a frown.

Limelight growled, pushing upward in an attempt to free herself from underneath the giant sneaker. "Then stop trying to kill the Giant!" she shouted back.

"I'm trying to save the world. This is what me and my team do," Susan replied. She pressed her foot down, forcing the air out of the heroine. Limelight wheezed, her strength losing out to Susan's. She freed an arm and pointed it upward. She gathered her energy into her palm and fired. Susan gasped before taking a step back as Limelight sun blast flew up into the sky, narrowly avoiding hitting her in the face.

Limelight quickly leapt to her feet before rocketing into the air and into Susan's stomach. Susan coughed as Limelight drove the wind out of her. Limelight followed up with a punch to the face. Susan staggered back before planting her feet and glaring at the heroine in annoyance.

Back with Doctor Cockroach and Night Fury, the armored hero fired power plasma blast beside the Doctor's cannon. The resulting blast was powerful enough to send the weapon onto it's side and knock the Doctor from his seat. Night Fury flew down as the Doctor picked himself up. The Doctor turned to Fury, tensing up and preparing to engage him if he had to, only for Fury to raise a hand up to try and show he didn't want to fight.

"Doctor Cockroach. You and I are two of the smartest people on the planet. Surely if someone could find an alternative, it would be us," he insisted.

The Doctor, intrigued by the possibility and challenge raised a finger to his chin and hummed. "Perhaps. What do you have in mind then?" he asked.

"What if we created some kind of interference?" he proposed.

The Doctor mulled it over, his antennae twitching as he pondered if such a thing could work. "Perhaps..."

"Your EMP Repulsor cannon. I think with a few adjustments-" Night Fury began.

"Yes. We just might be able to broadcast a carrier wave that should create some destructive interference. And if we find just the right wavelength, we may obstruct the signal altogether ," the Doctor said in agreement as he looked to his weapon. He looked to Night Fury, "I'll require some assistance."

Link and Archer were locked in a hand to hand battle. The fish man had Archer on the defensive, his build and strength making him a dangerous opponent. He threw jabs, not wanting to seriously harm her, but at least knock her unconscious. Archer backed away, bobbing and weaving out of the way of his strikes before counterattacking. But the fish man was quite skilled, and her punches just weren't doing enough damage.

Link dropped to the ground and swept her legs out from under her. Archer fell to the ground on her backside before rolling backward and to her feet before he could contemplate pinning her. She reached an arm back and drew an arrow. But to Link's confusion, she didn't draw her bow.

"No bow? Not going to shoot your arrow at me?" he asked in confusion.

"Don't need it for this arrow. She threw the arrow down at the ground. The head hit the pavement and exploded, releasing a green gas into the air. Link breathed it in and his eyes began to water and burn. He let out a shout of pain as his vision was blurred by tears. He looked to Archer, eyes red and running to see she'd placed a small gas mask over her face, protecting her nose, mouth, and eyes from the gas.

With Link debilitated for the moment she rushed in, striking him in the stomach, neck, and face with a well placed kick, punch, and chop. She began to press the attack herself as Link struggled to fight back.

Frost meanwhile continue to watch the blob man suck on his frozen arm. He didn't know why he was just staring at the scene. He'd seen a lot of weird things in his life...but this had probably been the weirdest.

"Ok. I am so done with this," he began shooting more blast of his icy magic at him. B.O.B began to dodge, moving across the ground with surprising speed before his gelatinous body began to grow many limbs. He laughed as the limbs began to shoot out and up at Frost. Frost's eyes widened as he began jerking out of the way of a barrage of gelatinous fists, coming at him from nearly every direction.

He blasted a few of them, freezing them solid. Which the blob would respond by retracting them back to his body, breaking them off, and then sucking on them and returning them back to his original mass.

Spectrum threw another soldier into a group of his comrades, keeping them away from the unmoving Giant. She glanced over to her mentor, who was still battling the white haired giantess. Spectrum narrowed her eyes before shooting into the air and toward the giant woman herself. She raised her hands up, holding her clenched fists in front of her as she rammed into the woman's lower back.

The woman staggered forward, before whirling around with a glare. But her glare faded into shock as she looked at Spectrum.

"Wha- How old are you?" Susan asked in shock. This girl had to be no older than 15.

"Old enough!" Spectrum shouted back. She raised her hands up and began firing off arcs of electricity. Susan hissed and yelped in pain, the electricity feeling like static shocks that stung.

Limelight flew low, hitting Susan in the back of the foot and tripping her up. Susan let out a startled cry as she fell to the ground. Limelight flew up to Spectrum, smiling at her in approval.

"Men! I want you to give Ginormica some backup!" Monger shouted as he pointed at Susan, battling not only Limelight, but Spectrum as well, and struggling. "Aim for Limelight," he said, reasoning that she, as the most powerful, was the most dangerous and thus the one they should prioritize removing from the fight.

The General struck a pose, pointing at the heroine facing down his subordinate. As he was doing so one of his men ran up with a rocket launcher. He took aim before firing. Monger's eyes widened as he watched the missile sail toward the heroine.

He turned to the soldier in a rage, "What are you doing soldier!? I didn't tell you to shoot a missile at a superhero!"

The soldier simply blinked, "But you said-"

"I meant distract her or fire some kind of...net cannon thing! Not blow her out of the sky!" he shouted. "Susan! Heads up!"

Limelight flew toward Susan, throwing a punch to her face that made her stagger back. Spectrum stood back, looking for an opportunity to assist when she suddenly saw Susan look her way, eyes widening as she diverted her attention off her mentor. Despite the fact that they were still fighting.

"Look out!" Susan shouted to Spectrum in warning. Spectrum arched a brow before turning in midair, only to see a missile about collide with her.

Limelight had ceased her assault on Susan to look back to her apprentice. "Spectrum!" she cried as she watched the missile closing in on her. She raised a hand and took aim, ready to blast it out of the sky before it could hit her dead on.

But something stopped the missile before she could. Spectrum flinched, as something suddenly moved in front of the missile's path. It exploded behind what had ever blocked it, making her turn away from the flash and sound of the explosion. She remained in the air, frozen solid, before peeking an eye open.

She gasped, seeing that the thing that had saved her...was a giant metal hand.

The hand moved and Spectrum looked up to it's owner. She smiled wide, heart soaring. "Giant!" she shouted in glee.

The Iron Giant smiled at her. "Spectrum. Are you...ok?" he asked her in concern.

She nodded before flying up to his face and hugging the side of his head. "I'm good buddy. Are you ok?" she asked him as he looked up into his white eyes. He gave a nod.

The area had gone silent and still, the soldiers, Monger, and Susan stunned by the fact that the Giant had saved Spectrum. It could have ran. It could have fought. It could have done so many things. But it hadn't. It'd chosen to stay and save the young hero, completely uncaring of it's situation.

"Everyone stop! Team monster, stand down!" Susan shouted. The soldiers and members of team monster heeded her command, stopping their individual battles before making their way over.

"Wait...hold on. I thought this thing was a killing machine," Susan said in confusion. "You know. Threat to humanity. Here to destroy us all?"

"He's more than that," Limelight shouted aloud. She flew up high so everyone could see her. "He saved the town of Rockwell 60 years ago. Just like he saved Spectrum," she said with a grateful smile to the metal man.

"What?!" Susan shouted. She looked to Link. "Link!"

"What?! I didn't know that either! Talk to Monger," the fish man said in his defense as he pointed to the director of Area 50-something.

Susan turned her head to the General. "General Monger, is that true?"

The General fidgeted awkwardly before coughing and standing up straight. "It might be...if I had read the entire file."

"Monger!"

"I am a man of action! Not some nerd who sits around all day and... _reads,_ " he said, saying the last word in disdain. Susan and Link groaned before palming their heads. "Regardless, the Giant is still sending out a homing beacon that could be calling who knows what to our planet!" he reminded everyone.

"Not to worry General!" Everyone turned their head to see Doctor Cockroach rolling up on his EMP cannon. And accompanying him was Night Fury. "After making a few adjustment to my EMP Repulsor cannon Night Fury and I were able to successfully scramble, making it untraceable. With some time we should be able to find a way to turn off the homing beacon altogether," he assured everyone

"Go science," Night Fury said as he raised a hand up. Doctor Cockroach high fived him.

Susan sighed, letting out a breath and shaking her head at the ridiculousness of the situation. She raised her head up and walked toward the Giant and Spectrum. "I'm sorry," she said, looking to both Spectrum and the Giant.

Limelight flew over to her sidekick, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We're sorry too."

"Well...I guess that's that then," Susan said. She looked back to Doctor Cockroach. "Doc. how long before you can shut off the homing beacon?" she asked.

The Doctor hummed, exchanging a glance with Night Fury. "Give an hour. Two tops!" he shouted.

"Alright then...problem-"

"Hold on!" Night Fury suddenly said, everyone one looked to him. "Satellites are picking up something entering our atmosphere. It coming right toward us...and it's as big as a city!"

"Yeah...think we can see it buddy!" Frost shouted. He pointed his cane out toward the coast. Everyone in turn looked in the same direction, only to find a massive object in the sky, and slowly making it's way toward Rockwell.

It looked like a massive UFO. It was a dark shadowy grey, looking similar in design to the Iron Giant.

"This could be bad," Frost said.

From the bottom of the ship several panels opened up before firing ball of a fire toward the town. Everyone watched as the flaming projectiles crashed into the ocean, the coastline, and the very outskirts of town. Buildings exploded. Wood was blasted apart, sending splinter everywhere. Dirt and ash filled the air, creating several smoky stacks all over town.

And from the darkness of the veils of smoke laser red eyes shined through.

"Oh...sh-"

"Language Spectrum," Limelight interrupted while she watched the smoke clear, revealing a handful of more giant robots exactly the same in design to the Iron Giant.

Everyone swallowed deep while the Giant took a step back in horror. His eyes darted about, taking in the machine exactly like him. It was like looking into many dark mirrors of himself. The red eyes seemed to be looking into his very depths, reminding him of all he was, and all he was meant to be.

"No," he muttered as he took another step back.

Spectrum looked to him, seeing him backing away, eyes wide and panicked. "Giant?" He suddenly turned tail and ran. "Giant! Wait!" she shouted, but he kept going. Trying to run away from the truth literally staring him in the face.

"We were too late," Night Fury said grimly. "They tracked him to earth."

To make matters worse a line of more giants marched out from the water. Eyes red and focusing on the town before them.

"Night Fury...we got a plan?" Archer asked.

"From what I could gather the invasion will start here and spread out in all directions until they wipe out everything on the planet. We stop them here, or the world falls," he said.

"No pressure or anything," Frost said as he tried to remain calm.

Riley was staring up at the giant ship looming overhead and the many giants facing them. She could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage. This was more than she'd ever bargained for. More than she'd ever thought she could face. She'd only been a superhero for a few weeks, and already she had to fight off an alien invasion? Her training had not prepared her for this! Nothing could prepare her for this. Her breathing started to become ragged, and suddenly it seemed as if all the air in the world couldn't fill her lungs.

Her eyes and hair turned a shade of purple. She began to lose altitude as her fear became the dominant emotion. She was scared. Terrified. She was only 13. She never-

"Spectrum!" Limelight's voice suddenly cut through the sound of her own heartbeat. Spectrum looked to her mentor, tears in her eyes. Limelight grabbed her by her shoulders and looked her in the eye. "Look at me," she said. "Get it together!" she said. Riley's breathing was still strained, she was on the verge of a panic attack. She just wanted to run!

"Riley...take a breath," Limelight whispered. At the use of her real name Riley finally managed to take a breath. "I know you're scared. But this is what being a hero is all about. You need to overcome this. Power through. I need you to evacuate the citizens. Get them as far away from here as you can. Ok? And after that, fly home."

Riley blinked, the yellow returning to her hair and eyes. "No. I don't want to leave you."

"The people need you more. And I promised I would keep you safe above all else," she smiled at her, placing her hands on her cheeks. "Don't worry about me. Saving the world is nothing new to us," she said as she gave her a smile. With that she let her go and turned around to face the threat.

Riley stared at her mentor's back, marveling at how she could stay so calm despite the circumstances. How she could face down certain calamity with a straight face. And amazed how with only a few words she could bring out the best in her. She blinked before flying away, looking for any citizens to evacuate.

Monger in turn ordered his soldiers to do the same. He began making calls, requesting back up and beginning to contemplate calling that smug bastard...Dicker...to send some more supers to back up team monster.

The Big Four stood at the ready. Prepared to save the world...again.

"So you guys feel like a team up?" Link asked as he looked to them. They nodded as Team Monster stood at the ready beside them.

Link couldn't help but laugh. Monster and superheroes, working together.

It was like the start some kind of bad joke.

Hopefully if they all made it through the end of today they could all share a laugh.

* * *

 **new chap**


	9. Chapter 9

**What would Superman do?**

Riley did as Rapunzel had told her to do. She helped the soldiers of Area 50-something evacuate the townspeople. She flew around the town, herding them away from her mentor and her allies engaging the giants and leading them to the military vehicles slowly but surely being filled with passengers. The townspeople with access to their vehicles were told to quickly get in and start making for the edge of town, and if they could spare the space, take multiple people with them.

The evacuation was going smoothly, with the heros and team monster holding the giants back while the town was cleared. But all that time Riley struggled to ignore the sounds of the battle. Sounds of explosions and breaking building were ever present. And she struggled to ignore the yellow flashes lighting up the sky, which she knew to be coming from her mentor.

She began to drift after the procession of cars making their way from the town. Rapunzel had told her to leave. To fly home. Home was on the other side of the country. She could definitely make it there, it would simply take her some time. But somewhere deep down...she felt she shouldn't be running.

It wasn't what she'd been taught. The people below her, in their cars, with families, who had no means to defend themselves from this kind of thing, they had the right to run. But her...

She stopped, looking back to the town that was already a few miles away. She was supposed to be a hero. She wasn't supposed to run from dangers. She was supposed to run _toward_ it. What if she could help? What if her powers could make a difference?

She clenched her fists, so torn between obeying her mentor or obeying her instincts to stand and fight. Why have these powers if not for the latter?

She looked down at the procession of cars and then ahead of it. Their path was all clear. The dangers was behind them, not ahead. As she came to a decision she paused, narrowing her eyes as she could just make out something peeking over the trees. Her eyes widened as she flew toward it. She came upon the giant, sitting on the ground with his head in his hands.

Riley stared at him, hardly believing that he could be one of those...things back there. But she'd witnessed first hand what he was capable of. What with his arsenal of hidden weapons and nearly impervious...

Her train of thought came to a halt as a light bulb went off in her head. She flew down to his face and shouted to get his attention, "Giant!" The Giant looked up at her, a mix of emotions flashing across his face. But mostly shame, guilt, and pain.

But he could mope later. Right now, she needed him.

"Giant! You have to help!" she said to him urgently. The Giant stared at her, not quite grasping what she was saying. "You have to help us fight those things," she said as she pointed a finger back in the direction of the town.

The Giant's eye widened in comprehension. "No," he muttered as he shook his head vigorously in rejection.

"Why not?" Riley shouted. "Please Giant! They're going to destroy everything! Kill everyone! You have to help us stop them!" Riley pleaded desperately. He could make a difference. She knew he could. He was powerful, a walking weapon that they could use against them.

"I am not a gun," the Giant said as he shook his head. He didn't want to destroy. He didn't want to be like those other giants. If he allowed himself to give into his violent nature, he didn't know if he would still be himself.

Suddenly a pickup truck drove off the road and up to them. It honked its horn, grabbing the attention of Riley and the Giant. They watched as the driver side door opened and Hogarth stepped out. His grandson remained in the car, but Riley could see he was scared. She felt the same way if she were being honest.

"You don't have to be a gun," Hogarth called up to the Giant, using the same words he'd used decades ago.

The Giant stared at Hogarth. He expected him of all people to understand why he couldn't fight. Why he didn't want to fight.

"I know you don't like violence buddy. I know you don't want to kill anything. I know you're not a gun. You are who you choose to be," he said, reminding him of one of the most important lessons the Giant had ever learned. "Look at your chest Giant," Hogarth said as he tapped the front of his own. The Giant did, looking down at the spray paints 'S' Riley had put on him before.

"You're like Superman, remember?" Hogarth said with a smile. "Superman had a lot of power. Power that could most certainly be used to destroy. But he _chose_ to use his powers to protect people. He chose to fight _for_ people," Hogarth argued. "Even when it was against his own kind."

"You don't have to be a gun. But you can choose to be like Superman. You can choose to be a hero. You choose," Hogarth told him. The Giant blinked, Hogarth's words resonating within him like only they could. He looked up and back to the town, to the heroes battling his fellow giants. He blinked in contemplation.

Riley drifted closer to the Giant. He looked to her. She was staring at him hopefully, fist curled at her sides anxiously. Waiting for his answer.

"Choose."

* * *

Back in town, the Big Four were battling alongside Team Monster against the giant legion trying to advance. The giant destroyed everything, devouring all metal they came across. Cars and other vehicles were scooped up and wolfed down ravenously. Piping and framework were ripped out of the ground and buildings. Business were smashed, the streets torn up, and the park destroyed.

The heroes and monsters did their best, but they were slowly being overwhelmed. Fury and Frost flew above the towns, circling and blasting the Giant's with missiles and his plasma energy. Archer fired arrow after arrow at them. While Limelight struck them down with blows capable of collapsing building.

But the giants were damn near indestructible. They hardly seemed to be doing anything to them.

Team Monster hardly fared any better. Link was using B.O.B like a lasso and wrecking ball. Tripping them up and then smashing his gelatinous friend into them. Doctor Cockroach was trying to get his EMP cannon back to it's original working order. It had unfortunately suffered from a minor, and very inconvenient, malfunction. Susan took the giants head on, huge size and strength allowing her to hold her own.

But there were just so many.

Susan struck a giant across the face with a powerful punch. It went spinning away from her, jaw broken and screws falling somewhere in the destroyed town below. She didn't let it. She grabbed its head in her hands and gave it a quick jerk. There was a slight screech in protest and then violent sparks as she twisted it's head off it's body. She tossed the head away while the body collapsed and fell the ground.

She heard metallic footsteps behind her. She glanced back to see a giant coming at her from behind. She threw her legs back and kicked it in the chest. It staggered back and she whirled around and advanced on it. It recovered and threw a hand our to grab her. But Susan ducked out of the way and then spun around it. She swept it's leg out from under it before slamming it's head into the ground. She pressed a foot down onto its shoulder and grabbed its arm before pulling with all her might.

The arm eventually gave as she ripped it off it's body, exposed wires sparking like mad before she tossed it away. She did the same to the other one, ripping it apart limb by limb before stomping it's head into the ground. She stepped off of it as more began to advance, trying to surround her. Their scanners picked up on the energy emanating from her body, thus deeming her to be the most serious threat and the priority in eliminating.

They boxed her in, grabbing and attacking her from all sides. She struggled against them, attempting to throw them off but unable to. Thinking quickly she thought of small things. Her body glowed before she began to shrink, reducing in size to that of a regular human before she quickly dashed out from between one of the legs. Once free she regrew to her ginormous size and resumed fighting.

Limelight flew at one giant and punched it in the face. It fell over before she rocketed toward another. She hit it heels first, sending it to the ground with a powerful drop kick. But they just kept getting up. She dropped, grabbing the one she'd just knock down by the foot before spinning it around and tossing it at another giant. The collided in a heap, struggling to get back up as Limelight rocketed at some more.

Archer was on the ground, running through the streets, firing her assortment of arrows at the giants. But even her explosive arrows hardly did anything but rock them on their heels. A giant stared down at her, red eyes beginning to glow. Archer felt her stomach drop before she began to run away as two beams of energy shot out from it's eyes and melted the spot she'd just been standing in.

She ran for her life. Vaulting over rubble and debris as the two beams of energy made trailed after her, leaving a path of destruction over whatever it crossed. As the beams of energy seemed to be gaining on her she quickly ducked into a space between building and threw herself down onto the ground. The beams of energy passed overhead, blazing through the building before stopping. She was out of it's line of sight, and safe. For the moment.

Archer raised a hand up and pressed down on her earpiece. "They're starting to use their weapons," she shouted.

"Yeah. Got that already," Frost called back as he weaved through the air, avoiding the laser beams trying to shoot him out of the sky. He flew in a wide circle as the giant he was facing followed his path. He pressed his lips together in thought, trying to think of a plan.

He saw another giant nearby, and thinking quickly he made a beeline toward it. He flew toward the giant and quickly flew around it to hide behind it's back. The giant was struck by the others energy beam, it's metal glowing red hot before melting and allowing the two beams to pass through it's chest and over Frost's head. It collapsed. Frost smiled and decided to see if he could repeat the process.

Link was still running around with B.O.B in town, he saw a giant ahead of them, gaze fixed on him. It raised its arms up, and it configured into a massive cannon. Link froze before doing the only thing that came to mind. "Sh'ka!" he shouted as he threw his gelatinous friend at the giant. B.O.B laughed as he sailed through the air and landed in the barrel of the giant's cannon arms.

The giant's cannon arm powered up and fired, only for B.O.B to block the energy. With nowhere to go the energy built up and backfired. It's arms exploded and it went stumbling to the side.

"We're actually doing some damage," Link said happily. Suddenly Susan hit the ground at his side. He shouted in alarm and leapt away as a giant held her down, grappling with her.

She grit her teeth together before bucking her hips and managing to roll over and then hurl it off of her. "But not enough!" she shouted back to Link. She scanned the battlefield to see they'd hardly made a dent in the giants' numbers. To make matters worse it appeared the detached parts of the giants were moving on their own, slowly making their way back to their bodies and reattaching, rebuilding. "They can fix themselves!" Susan shouted aloud.

Everyone heard it and noticed this too. Fury shot a missile at the knee joint of a giant, successfully blowing it apart. It fell to the ground, and as it laid there an antenna suddenly came out the top of it's head. The top of it began to emit a flashing light, and the leg began to move toward the body. Fury growled before flying toward the downed giant. He took aim and pointed one of his palms at it and fired. He aimed for the top of the antennae, the part that was flashing.

It exploded, emitting a great flash of sparks before going dim. And to his relief the leg stopped moving.

"All of you! Go for the head! If you can destroy the head they can't rebuild!" he called out.

Everyone heeded his advice, adjusting their strategies as such.

Meanwhile Doctor Cockroach was frantically trying to fix his EMP cannon. After doing a bit of rewiring and rerouting power he was at it's control panel trying to boot it up. But to his frustration he could not get it to work. "Blast! Come on you infernal contraption!" he shouted as he slammed his fists down onto the control panel.

A moment later the panel blinked to life. "Hazzah!" the Doctor cried triumphantly. He moved the cannon and took aim before fired. The yellow beam of energy hit a giant in the head. The giant began to spasm, eyes flickering before blowing outward and collapsing. "Yes!" the Doctor cried as he threw his hands up. He looked at his control panel, while his weapon was effective he knew he didn't have enough power to keep firing endlessly.

As Limelight blasted through the head of a Giant she looked see more were still coming out from the ocean. "We have more incoming!" she shouted.

"I got this!" Fury said over the comm link. "Eve, bring it up!"

The ocean outside the town began to rumble and stir before something massive began to rise. A large green airship took to the air, green and reminiscent of some kind of sea creature. Inside Eve piloted the Scauldron, locking it's weapon systems onto the giants emerging from the water. She took aim, determined to keep them out of the fight.

She began blasting them with the Scauldron's powerful plasma cannon, blowing through, or their heads clean off. The weapons were too powerful to fire at the the ones in town their would be too much collateral, so she had no choice but to leave the heroes and monster to right on their own.

"Eve, start charging the plasma core for one big shot!" Fury commanded her over the comm line. She did as told, diverting power from nonessential sources and preparing, waiting for Fury's command.

The battle in the town continued, but the heroes and monsters were barely holding their own. The giants were starting to get more coordinated, working in tandem and using their powerful weapons. It seemed that they were all being deemed more of a nuisance than anticipated, and they were responding appropriately.

As Limelight knocked down another giant she was suddenly hit from behind, swatted down to the ground like a fly. She rolled over to see two giants standing over her, cannon arms aimed right at her. She gulped as she saw the light beginning to shine from within their barrels.

Then suddenly an arrow flew into one and exploded while ice filled the other, causing it to exploded shortly after. The giants staggered away as Limelight picked herself up. Archer and Frost made their way over to her. She smiled at them in thanks before narrowing her eyes and preparing to get back in the fight.

Meanwhile Susan was being bombarded from the blasts of multiple giants. Their cannon arms were all raised and locked onto her as they fired at her over and over. Susan held her arms up and crossed them in defense. The energy she radiated granted her a substantial degree of resistance to their attacks, but they still hurt like hell.

She was suddenly hit by a powerful blast to her side. She fell sideway, hitting the ground as the giants closed in. Susan was breathing hard, body covered in red marks from their blasts. She looked to the giants as they advanced, narrowing her eyes in determination as she struggled to push herself back up. She would defend the earth. And if she failed she would at least go down swinging.

The giant stared at her with their red eyes before taking aim. All of their barrels glowed at once as they preparing to fire one big blast in unison.

But before they could one of them was hit in the side of it's head by a powerful blow. It stumbled to the side, falling into the other giants and knocking them all off balance. Susan's eyes widened in shock and awe to see she'd been saved by another giant. This one actually battling against the others, only its eyes were white instead of red.

That's when she realized it had been the original one, the one she had been trying to help destroy, only now he was fighting with them. She watched as he punched another giant's head clean off before grabbing another and tossing him into a different giant.

The heroes and monsters couldn't help but stare at the Giant returned, battling and knocking around his fellow giants fiercely. What's more, the other giants weren't fighting back. They only stood there, almost as if they were confused by the sight of one of their own turning on them.

"Yeah!" Spectrum cheered as she watched the Giant battle. She had a huge smile on her face. "You get 'em buddy! Kick all their butts," she shouted in enthusiasm. She knew he could help.

"Riley!" Spectrum turned as Limelight flew over to her. She wore a frown on her face and her eyes were narrowed into an unpleasant stare.

Spectrum fidgeted in midair and blushed. "Ok, so I know I'm _probably_ in trouble," she began.

"Oh, you're _definitely_ in trouble," Limelight replied. Spectrum arched a brow, Limelight's tone not carrying the usual hardness she used to berate her. Limelight glare and frown dissipated before becoming a proud smile. Spectrum smiled back. "C'mon. Let's get rid of these guys," she said as she motioned to the giants.

Spectrum nodded before they flew down at one in unison. Spectrum's scarf began to lengthen while Limelight hair did the same. They flew toward the legs of a giant and ensared its ankles before yanking it off it's feet. It fell to the ground, mentor and protege exchanged a glance and smiled before flying to engage the other ones.

Everyone fought with a renewed sense of vigor and strength, hoped bolstered by the giant fighting alongside them.

The giant tossed another giant clear across the town before surveying the area. There were at least ten to a dozen giants still remaining. The giant narrowed his eyes and raised his arm. His arms transformed into it's cannon form, and atop it a spinning disk appeared. Two needled like appendages came out with it, striking the spinning disk repeatedly and letting loose a barrage of laser like bullets.

The heroes watched as the bullets blasted clean through the bodies of several giants, doing immense damage. But the giant wasn't done. He didn't want to fight He didn't want to destroy anything, be it living or its fellow giants. But he'd made a choice. He'd chosen to be on the side of life, meaning he'd do all he could to protect it. Even if it meant destroying his fellow giants.

He began to transform. His other arms took on its energy claw form before it fired a blast of green energy that enveloped a giant and then vaporized it's entire upper body. He fired blasts from his cannon arm, blowing others away while riddling them with laser bullets. His chest suddenly split apart, his head sank into his torso, a glass like dome came out over it, and three scorpion like appendages came out from it's back.

The giant advances, weapon locking onto the others and blasting them, blowing them apart. All the while the other giants weren't fighting back. Still frozen in confusion at the sight of one of their own fighting against them. This made them sitting ducks for the giant as he let loose his entire arsenal.

Eventually all the giants were lying in pieces along the ground, bodies riddled with holes, arms, legs, and even heads blown clean off. One by one the light faded from all of their eyes, too damaged to repair themselves.

The Giant shifted his gaze around, looking for any other giants, but there were none. Everyone else couldn't help but stare un amazement, breathing hard after what felt like hours of fighting. They used their moment of reprieve to catch their breaths and regather their wits.

But the ship still hovering over the ocean loomed over them all, a reminder that this wasn't over.

"Did we win?" Spectrum asked hopefully.

"No. That was just the first wave," Night Fury said.

"So there' still more!?" she shouted.

"Enough to destroy this entire planet," Fury said as looked out to the mothership. Suddenly he got an alert from Eve within his helm. "But this ends now," he said, his voice going hard. "Eve, fire at will," he said.

From the deck of the Scauldron a large plasma cannon came out. Powered by the giant plasma core housed within the Scauldron, it began to take aim at the ship above it.

"Fury, what's going on?" Frost asked.

"I'm having the Scauldron fire it's plasma cannon at the mother ship. It has the power that rivals a warhead. And ut should blow that ship out of the sky," he said.

Back on the Scauldron the plasma cannon was pointed upward, charging all of it's power. A purplish-blue light began to shin from within the plasma cannon's barrel

From within his helm Fury could hear Eve's voice. "Firing in three...two...one," she said.

"Everyone get down!" Fury said. Everyone shielded their eyes as a massive burst of purplish-blue light lit up the sky. Susan dropped low, wrapping her arms around team monster while the Giant did the same for the Big Four. A beam of energy capable of destroying a city shot out from the Scauldron and toward the mothership.

The blast rattled the ocean, kicking up waves while creating a shockwave that blew over the town. Susan grunted and braced herself against the wave buffeting her. The giant did the same, while Limelight wrapped her arms around Spectrum and held her tightly.

Everyone waited and kept their heads down until the light faded and the shock wave passed. When they were sure it had the Susan and the Giant unwrapped their arms from around the monsters and heroes. Everyone squinted against the sky to see if that had done it.

"Well, Night Fury said to break the silence. "I did not account for that."

Surrounding the entirety of the ship was a massive translucent sphere of green energy. It glowed brightly, shimmering against the sky until it disappeared.

"Energy shield. Typical," Doctor Cockroach said in disdain.

"Any other ideas Fury?" Archer asked.

"Give me a minute," Fury said as his mind began to race, trying to come up with their next move.

Spectrum stared up at the ship remaining in the sky. She gulped, swallowing down a lump in her throat. She was trying to stay positive. But it becoming hard. They'd barely stood against the first wave, and there were supposedly a whole lot more.

"Spectrum," the Giant said behind her. Spectrum turned around to face the Giant. He looked down at her as she looked up at him.

She put on a fake smile. "It's ok buddy. We'll get through this," she said. She raised her arms up and flexed her biceps. "We're superheroes. We never give up," she said with forced bravado.

The Giant wasn't fooled. He knew. He could tell she was afraid. He looked up at the ship, knowing there were many more giants about to reign down on them. In greater numbers than before. And though he had no doubt that the heroes would fight, they'd lose.

But he could do something. He could save everyone.

Just like Superman.

Spectrum watched as the Giant's fists curled at his sides. She arched a brow. "Giant?" she said inquisitively.

He looked down at her, and there was something in his eyes that she didn't like. He suddenly kneeled down and lowered a hand. He placed a finger under her chin and raised her face up. He stared into her eyes, "Spectrum. I go...you stay," he told her.

Spectrum's eyes widened as he repeated her exact same words."No following," he said. He moved his finger and ran it over her head in fondness before standing up.

"Giant?" Spectrum said in confusion as he backed away, putting distance between him and everyone else. Everyone stared at him, wondering what he was doing until he bent his legs. In the next moment he took to the air, jets on his feet propelling him into the sky.

"Giant!" Spectrum shouted after him. She was about to fly after him when Limelight grabbed her. She looked back to her mentor to see her giving her a look saying not to follow. "What's he doing?"

Limelight looked up and watched as the Giant made a beeline toward the ship. "I don't know."

Meanwhile the Giant flew with narrowed eyes toward the ship. His scanners fed him information. He could detect the energy shield around the ship. And he was also linked to it. He communicated back and forth with it, exchanging information that were in the depths of his programming. He got closer and closer and the shield lit up. Just as it seemed he were about to slam into it, it suddenly faded. The shield dropping and allowing him to pass.

From the side of the ship a large hatch opened, allowing him to fly right in.

The heroes and monsters and stood there in shock as the Giant flew right into the ship. They watched in silence, wondering that was going to happen.

Suddenly the ship gave a loud hum that vibrated through everyone. In the net moment the ship began to climb. It got higher and higher, slowly climbing into orbit until it was out of sight. They could all hardly believe it, he was moving the ship.

Saving them all.

* * *

Inside the ship the Giant was going on a rampage. The ship itself was like a massive mobile factory, constantly building a near endless amount of giants. They were war machines. Built to conquer and destroy planets. Their creators were long gone, but they'd never forgotten their purpose, their mission. And since no one was around to tell them to stop, they hadn't. And they never would.

So to ensure the safety of earth, the survival of the human race, and to protect his friends he knew what he had to do.

He had to destroy this place

After accessing the navigation controls he set the ship to move away from the planet. Then he disabled them, blasting the controls into an inaccessible mess. Then he went about destroying the numerous assembly lines putting together more giants. Now he had one more stop to make.

The reactor room. If he could destroy the reactor this whole ship would be gone, destroyed in one go.

He faced resistance while making his way toward it. The other giants had overcome their confusion. Now they registered him as an enemy. A faulty unit to be destroyed, dismantled, and recycled for parts. But the giant did let them stop him. He smashed and blasted his way through them, determined to complete his mission.

After minutes of running he finally came to it. A large circular room with five small and then one large reactors. These reactors generated enough energy to power the massive ship and everything on it for eons to come. And all he had to do was destroy one.

There was just one problem.

Standing between him and the reactors was another giant. This one was different. It was taller. Newer. More heavily armored. Only deployed against civilizations that put up a considerable amount of resistance. This one alone could destroy an entire planet, wipe out whole armadas.

It was 100 feet tall and made from some kind of black alloy. Its head was dome shaped with a singular red line serving as its eyes. It towered over the giant, weapons hidden as it analyzed its smaller, less advanced adversary.

The Giant raised his cannon arm and fired. The green blast of energy exploded in the face of the bigger giant. But the bigger giant didn't flinch. Didn't even get rocked back. The Giant kept his arm up, firing a barrage of laser bullets. They hit the taller giant, then simply ricocheted off it's armor.

The Giant was about to try another weapon when the taller giant simply swung his arm out, batting him aside. He crashed into a far wall before slumping to the metal floor. The Giant looked up as his internal mechanisms fixed themselves. He picked himself back up.

The door to the room opened and more of the lesser giants began to file in, eyes all red and prepared to shoot him down. He raised his arm to fire at them, only for the bigger giant to fire a single beam of green energy that struck him in the chest and burned a hole straight through him.

The Giant froze, his scanner indicating his main power core had been breached. He dropped to his knees before dropping to the ground. His optical scanners began to fade, going in and out as he tried to stay active. The taller giant turned its back to him while the other giants moved into to take him away.

Everything began to go dark for the giant, some a person would liken to dying. With a final flicker the light faded from his eyes. The others all came and surrounded him before grabbing a limb and beginning to pick him up. Before he could shut down forever something played through his mind.

'We're superheroes...We never...give...up' came a voice he recognized as Spectrum's.

 **Accessing reserve power...Energy levels: 10%**

The light came back to the Giant's eyes and they were a burning red. He couldn't die yet. He still had something to do.

" **Rrrrraaaaaaaggggghhhh**!" the Giant cried as he tossed all the giant's aside. They all went flying away as the taller giant turned around to sound of his cry. The jets on the Giant's feet came to life, rocketing him toward the bigger one. He cocked back his cannon arms before throwing it forward.

The taller giant staggered back as he shoved his cannon arm right through the center of it's eye. The taller giant began to malfunction and spark violently before the Giant fired his cannon. The taller one's head exploded in a brilliant flash of green as it fell backward and hit the ground.

The Giant fell forward, his cannon arm gone, blown off in the explosion.

 **Energy Levels: 5%**

He picked himself up and began to trudge toward the reactors. But the smaller giants began to jump on him. Leaping at him and trying to force him back. He fought on, but began to lose ground as he began being dragged back inch by inch.

 **Energy Levels: 2%**

With the last of his power beginning to fade away he redirected all his remaining energy. His eyes locked onto the center reactor and they began to glow. He could feel his eye beams powering up. Prepared to fire one last shot.

As he did his short time on earth flashed before his eyes. He thought of his time with Hogarth, grateful he'd made such a great friend. And that he got to see him one last time. Then he thought of his new friend. Spectrum. He'd only known both for a short amount of time, but they taught him everything he'd needed. His time on earth may have been short, but he wouldn't trade it for anything.

A metal hand fell over his face, obscuring his view. But he still had one eye on target.

 **Energy Levels: .99%**

'You are who you choose to be,' he heard in his mind.

"Spectrum," he whispered.

Then he fired.

* * *

Back on the ground the heroes and monster were staring up at the sky. Waiting for...they honestly didn't know.

Then suddenly a great explosion lit up the sky. They all flinched away in surprise as the light faded. They watched as fiery pieces of metal fell from the sky and into the ocean, and they knew they'd been saved.

Riley and Limelight hovered in the air, staring up at the sky in silence. Everyone save Riley bowed their heads in respect and mourning.

Limelight hovered closer to her apprentice's back. She opened her mouth to speak, to offer her some words of comfort. But nothing came out. What could make this better?

Thunder suddenly crashed in the distance. Limelight glanced up to see dark clouds rolling in from out of nowhere. Then a drop of rain hit her in the face. Everyone else glanced up as rain began to fall. Limelight caught her apprentice drifting down toward the ground, her hair turning from yellow to a dark shimmering blue.

Limelight followed her, drifting down to the ground as sparks began to crackle off of her.

"Riley," she finally said. Riley spun around, head down as she threw her arms around her waist and buried her face against her. Her shoulders began to shake as she struggled not to cry. She understood why he did it. And to cry would be to dishonor his sacrifice. So she held it in. Determined not to-

"It's ok Riley," Rapunzel told her. "It's ok."

And just like that her will caved. Her tears began to fall and the rain fell even harder. Limelight held her as she cried and cried, offering her what comfort she could.

"I'm sorry Riley," Rapunzel whispered to her.

The other stood there in silence.

Paying their respects to a fellow hero who'd made the ultimate sacrifice for them all.

* * *

 **new chap**

 **Deadpool: Don't poke at plotholes**

 **deverest: I try not to copy and paste. The Illuminati would be pushing it.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Epilogue**

Numerous military personnel, Team Monster, and the Big Four were doing what they could to clean up the destroyed town of Rockwell. They moved debris and dragged the destroyed bodies of the giants out of the town. Monger was busy making calls, getting the appropriate authorities to start getting the reconstruction of the town underway. Night Fury and Archer were also planning to make a few generous donations to help the process along.

Meanwhile, one of them was in center of town. At the park which received minimal damage, was Riley, standing before the memorial statue of her deceased friend which had miraculously survived the destruction. She stood there, staring up at it in silent mourning. The clouds over her dim, gray, and as somber as her demeanor, and her hair and eyes hadn't changed from their deep blue. Her entire body was emitting the occasional static spark, her powers resonating with her sadness.

Suddenly someone came up to stand beside her. Riley glanced to the side to see Hogarth had joined her, his eyes on the statue and his hands clasped together. "Mind if I join you?" he said quietly as he kept his eyes forward.

Riley didn't say anything as she looked back to the memorial. And then they stood there together, mourning the loss of their mutual friend. Probably the only two people who could understand what the other was feeling.

"He saved us all," Riley said sorrowfully.

"Yeah. He did," Hogarth said with a nod.

"I'm sorry Mr. Hogarth," Riley said softly as she bowed her head.

"It's ok. It was just good to see him again," he said. He took a breath and released it. "Even if it was for the last time."

He suddenly chuckled. "Last time, when he saved the town...I knew that deep down," he paused to smile fondly at the memory of that day 60 years ago. "He did it to save me. But today," he looked to her. "He did it to save you." Riley felt her eyes water before she raised a hand to quickly wipe at her eyes.

He sucked in a deep breath before turning to Riley. "I think you'll make an excellent superhero one day Spectrum. I'll be rooting for you," he said as he gave her a smile. He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked to him curiously and held his gaze, "Still, I hope as you go you always keep these words with you. You are who you choose to be," he said sagely.

With one final smile he gave her shoulder a squeeze, then a pat. And with that he turned and left. Riley glanced back and after him before looking back to the statue.

Meanwhile Monger and team monster gathered together to speak with the Big Four. Monger stood before his team, straight and at attention. He cleared his throat and coughed into his hands. "On behalf of Area 50-something, the U.S. Military, and the world," he began, pausing to raise a hand to salute them all in respect. "You have my thanks."

The Big Four nodded in acceptance.

"And as the leader of Team Monster," Susan chimed in as she took a step forward. "We're sorry about the misunderstanding," she said with utmost sincerity.

"Yeah. Our bad," Link said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Dr. Cockroach nodded in agreement while B.O.B was busy staring off at a bird and laughing to himself.

Susan glanced to Riley, obviously in mourning. "And uh...tell the kid that we're sorry for attacking her friend. And for her loss."

Limelight nodded, looking to her protege with sympathy.

With a final goodbye Monger left with Team Monster in tow. Though Night Fury and Dr. Cockroach agreed to stay in touch and "exchange notes" every now and again.

The Big Four stood there before they all glanced in Riley's direction. They exchanged glances before Limelight stepped forward. The others remained where they were, letting Limelight go to her protege alone.

Limelight came up to stand beside her apprentice. "You ok?" she asked in concern. Riley shrugged quietly. "I'm sorry Riley."

Riley was silent for beat before responding. "Being a hero isn't all like I'd thought it would be," she said. "I thought it was always going to be cool and exciting. I thought the heroes always came out ok because they were heroes." She looked to her mentor, "But that doesn't always happen, does it Rapunzel?"

"No. Not always," Rapunzel said. Then they lapsed back into silence as Riley looked away.

"Pop quiz Riley," Rapunzel said. She looked back to the heroine. "What the true measure of a hero?" she asked out of the blue.

"I don't know. What?"

"It's not how strong or fast they are. It's not how many powers they have. It's not how famous or how popular they are," she answered. "It's their willingness to make the greatest sacrifice a person can make for the sake of another. To have it in their heart to put the lives of others before their own.

"How can you do that? Why do you that?" Riley asked.

"Because that's the kind of person I've chosen to be," she answered. She looked to Riley with a proud smile. "I'm proud of you Riley." Riley arched a brow. "For trusting your instincts. For believing your friend was good, even when everyone else, myself included, was telling you otherwise."

She kneeled down to eye level. "So Riley, you've helped save the world today. You gotten a real taste of what it means to be a hero and what's truly on the line," she began. "So now I need to ask you, do you still want to do this?"

Riley held her gaze before looking away in thought. She thought being a hero was going to be all adventure and fighting villains. But sometimes, the villains weren't so clear. It wasn't always exciting. And at any time she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

"There's no shame in backing out," Rapunzel assured her.

Riley gave it some serious thought. She knew she could do a lot of good with her powers. She could help a lot of people. Save them too. But could she always and readily do it, not knowing what every new day or threat could bring? And know that she may have to give her life each and every time?

"Yes," she answered. Voice firm, eyes narrowed resolutely, and holding her mentor's gaze.

Rapunzel saw the unwavering determination in her apprentice's eyes. She smiled before standing up. She placed her hands on her hips and nodded in satisfaction. "Glad to hear it." She held Riley's gaze, seeing the makings of a fine hero beginning to blossom.

"Yo! Guys! We're heading out!" Frost called to them. The two of them looked over to the rest of the Big Four and smiled. The yellow began to return to Riley's hair and eyes and the clouds overhead began to dissipate, letting the sunlight shine over the town. Rapunzel smiled, looking at all the people who were going to help her turn Riley into a great superhero in her own right.

"Let's go," Rapunzel said to her apprentice. Riley grinned and nodded. The Big Four began taking to the air. Rapunzel followed before looking back and waiting. Riley tapped into her powers and began rising to follow after.

But she paused to look back at the statue of the Giant. Her friend from the stars who'd given his life to save her and everyone. And who'd taught her one of her most valuable lessons she'd keep with her for the rest of her life.

"I'll never forget," she whispered, a silent promise to herself.

And her friend...the _Iron Giant._

* * *

 _Two days later..._

Hiccup sipped his cup of coffee as he stood in his front yard, examining the wreckage of his destroyed home. It was still a mess. But his many maintenance bots were steadily making repairs. His house would be as good as new within a week. Merida had gone back to Corona. And while she had invited him to stay at her home until his was fixed he'd declined, opting to live in the base underneath until then.

He took one more sip, shuddering slightly at the cool morning breeze. "Keep up the good work guys," he called out to the robots. They all beeped at him in confirmation as he made his way inside his home. He went down to the secret base before entering his lab. He sealed the door before walking forward.

"Eve," he said aloud. The far wall he was heading toward began to split to reveal a hidden and larger portion of his personal lab. This space was dark, nearly impossible to see. Hiccup walked straight ahead and toward a small panel sticking out of the ground in the center of the room alongside a rolling chair.

He took a seat, placed his mug down, and tapped the panel. It came to life before numerous holographic recordings were being displayed all around the room. They were all of the battle at Rockwell, the battle between his friends and the metal giants. He watched the destruction and the efforts of his friend to stop them. Only to be reminded at how much they'd struggled, how close they'd come to losing.

Hiccup was under no delusions. The world had nearly ended that day. Everyone else was celebrating, but he knew they'd just been seriously lucky.

He watched the screens, scowling to himself. This threat had not been of earth. It had been an alien menace. And if one existed, surely there were more. And they could be just as bad, or worse than what they faced today. He had to do something. He had to make sure he was prepared for whatever threat may come.

"Stop," he suddenly said. The videos all froze. Hiccup's eyes darted back and forth, pinpointing various frozen holographic videos. Hiccup began pointing at the ones he wanted. There were five in total and with a few hand gestures he made them all come closer while waving all the others away.

The frozen video feeds were all of the giants' various weaponry. He rubbed his chin, moving his hands about as he isolated the weapons and made scans of them. More holographic images began to appear, all of new armor designs he'd been working on ever since he'd returned to the base.

He began moving the scans of the weapons to his armors, seeing how he could incorporate them together.

"Eve! Lights on!" he said. Suddenly all the lights in the room came on.

And at the edges of the room were several inactive giants. Along with the odd giant limb here and there and even what he believed was an engine piece from the mother ship. Area 50-something had collected all the giants' bodies and pieces of the mother ship that could be found, intending to lock them away for study or destruction so no one else would use the technology for ill intent. But Hiccup had gotten Eve to collect a few of them secretly so he could study the technology for himself. Even his friends didn't know.

Now, tampering with alien technology might have seemed like a bad idea.

And it probably was.

But Hiccup felt compelled to act. If he could figure out how it worked and incorporate it into his tech, make more advanced weapons, he may be able to use it to stop whatever threats he and his friends may face in the future.

Of course that wasn't the only reason.

Hiccup was, at his core, a scientist. And alien technology was the holy grail. How could he not want to unlock its secrets? How could he not take up this challenge, prove just how much a genius he was?

Hiccup smiled in excitement, his hands trembling at his sides. "Eve. Ready the lab," he said aloud. Mouth almost watering at what he may soon discover.

"Time for some _**major**_ upgrades."

* * *

 **final chap.**

 **Hope everyone enjoyed.**

 **Oh, and just to be clear, the Iron Giant is gone. He;s not coming back. End of story.**

 **Now, I have two ideas for my next Superhero Au story. It can either be a Big Four story. Or a solo Riley story where she meets and teams up with...drum roll**

 **HIRO HAMADA of the BH6**


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